[Jim Mills]

Congress to Hold Hearings on Steroid Use

Dec 18, 2:19 PM (ET)

By LAURIE KELLMAN

(AP) Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, center, and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., look at photos of a young...
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WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress announced plans Tuesday to review the use of performance-enhancing drugs, with star-studded hearings scheduled next month and legislation to limit access to steroids and growth hormones.

Two House panels are planning mid-January hearings featuring former Sen. George Mitchell, author of a bombshell report last week that linked more than 80 players to the illegal use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. Baseball players, likely some of those named in the report, could be invited to testify as well.

Meanwhile, a Senate Republican and Democrat on Tuesday announced legislation to limit access to those substances and stiffen criminal penalties for abuse and distribution.

Central to that effort is cracking down on the abuse of human growth hormone, or HGH, a drug for which there is no reliable test, said its sponsor.

The bill by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., would classify HGH as a "Schedule III" substance, equating it legally with anabolic steroids and bringing it under the watch of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

That would mean that possession of HGH, a naturally occurring hormone approved by the FDA for treatment of some medical conditions, would be illegal without a current, valid prescription. Penalty for possession could be as high as three years in prison and even higher for illegal manufacture or distribution.

A second proposal by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, would make it illegal to sell dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) to anyone under 18. DHEA is a naturally occurring precursor to testosterone and a dietary supplement that some athletes are using as an alternative to illegal anabolic steroids, Grassley said.

Two House panels, meanwhile, are planning hearings on the Mitchell report.

The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has announced a hearing on the matter Jan. 15. Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and ranking Republican Tom Davis of Virginia said they will invite Mitchell, baseball Commissioner Bud Selig and Doug Fehr, president of the Major League Players Association, to testify.

Rep. Bobby Rush, chairman of the subcommittee on commerce, trade and consumer protection, has scheduled proceedings for Jan. 23. Mitchell will be invited to testify as will other members of Major League Baseball, a spokesman said.

Mitchell's report implicated seven former MVPs and more than 80 players in all.

A former Democratic Senate Majority Leader who retired in 1995, Mitchell, 74, has said he will soon undergo treatment for prostate cancer, an illness he made public in August.

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Schumer's bill is S. 877.

Grassley's bill is S. 2470.

[neoborn]

Day by day you all lose your "United" States Of America and it's apparent "democracy". Little by little it becomes more and more like a fascist dictatorship.

When will everyone stand up and do something about it? I am sure not until the state stormtroopers are crashing through your front doors and killing your wives and children!



Amor Est Vitae Essentia,

Neoborn

[size]

It is sad that tax dollars are being spent on such a waste of time.

[AM07]

**** the government.

[neoborn]

Originally Posted by AM07

**** the government.

It's exactly what they're doing to you....

[AM07]

Originally Posted by neoborn

It's exactly what they're doing to you....

Nothing we can do about it.

It's been going on for decades now, but it's much more pronounced the past 3-4 decades.

[Fastone]

Originally Posted by size

It is sad that tax dollars are being spent on such a waste of time.

That's the long and the short of it in a nutshell. I don't want my government spending large amounts of money to tell me about baseball, let baseball handle their business.

I want to honestly be told why I'm paying $3.00+ for gas and why we ran into a war in Iraq and continue to bleed money into it.

[FunkyFinester]

Originally Posted by neoborn

Day by day you all lose your "United" States Of America and it's apparent "democracy".

Not a democracy. Republic.

[BodyWizard]

A republican form of government in no way addresses or preserves the concepts of freedom or of civil liberties: it's just a way of structuring a government. Our founders chose it because it seemed the most stable & the hardest to subvert, but it's not proof against tyranny of any sort, as our would-be emperor demonstrates daily.

it's not all bleak - we'll probably preserve the form and appearance of a republic - but that won't make us free; and we'll keep telling ourselves we're the best, freest, most noble nation on earth even as we sink into a failed-state, 3rd-world existence.

Blood, bread & circuses worked for the Romans, and they're working for us - as long as you define "us" as "the people actually running things. (4 ex, Blackwater & KBR/Halliburton are much closer to the levers of power than you or I will ever be).

And it happened because people say "Nothing we can do about it".... A cursory glance at the writings of the founders makes it crystal clear that the American Experiment can only succeed if the citizenry is educated, informed, and involved.

[AM07]

That's the problem. The majority of Americans are dumbass sheep and don't give a **** what goes on in this country, as long as they get their paycheck every two weeks.

I guarantee if you offered every American $100 to go out and vote for the next President, there would be a MUCH greater voter turnout, not because they care about the country and the state of affairs, but because they got their $100 that they can spend on shoes, clothes, a television, etc.

[MESSPLAY]

There are bigger problems in the world than steroids.