Explain the World Anti-Doping Code, any legislation and penalties associated with use of anabolic steroids

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answer: Since 2009, the World Anti-Doping Code, has been in effect. The Code includes an agreed-upon list of prohibited performance-enhancing drugs and performance-enhancing methods in international sports competitions, testing procedures for their use, and specific penalties for violations.

Under the auspices of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), rules and regulations have been formally accepted by more than 200 National Olympic Committees, as well as by professional leagues representing the United States in the Olympic Games and other international competitions.

The 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, instituted the strictest drug-testing procedures to date for all competing athletes, including a new screening for EPO, a drug that enhances endurance by increasing red blood cells. For the first time, a specific phrase was inserted into the Olympic Oath, recited by all athletes at the beginning of the games: ". . . committing ourselves to a sport without doping and without drugs." Unfortunately, accusations of illegal performance enhancing drug use and expulsions of athletes continued to plague the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens.

The nonmedical possession of the most potent category of performance-enhancing drugs, namely anabolic steroids and chemical precursors to anabolic steroids, is a criminal offence.

In 1990, anabolic steroids both in and out of competitive sports, Congress passed the Anabolic Steroid Control Act, reclassifying anabolic steroids as Schedule III controlled substances. Jurisdiction was transferred from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

As a result of this legislation, pharmacies are permitted to fill anabolic steroid
prescriptions only up to a maximum of five times. Penalties for violating the law can result in a five year prison term and a $250,000 fine for illegal nonmedical sales, and a one-year term and a $1,000 fine for nonmedical possession. Penalties are doubled for repeated offenses or for selling these drugs to minors.

States are permitted to draft their own laws regarding the definition of anabolic steroids and to set sentencing offenders. Although most states follow the federally mandated Schedule III classification, New York lists steroids in Schedule II, and Alaska does not schedule them at all. In some states, possession of small quantities of steroids is regarded as a misdemeanor; other states regard it as a felony. In most but not all states, first-time offenses do not result in imprisonment, unless there are aggravating circumstances such as possession of large quantities or evidence of intent to sell or distribute the drugs. Anabolic steroid distribution, like the distribution of other restricted drugs in the United States, has become an enormous black-market enterprise.

It is estimated that the illicit anabolic steroid market is valued at between $300 million to $400 million each year, with the drugs smuggled into the United States from Europe, Canada, and Mexico. By this time, the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004 had expanded the Schedule III classification to include androstenedione and other testosterone precursors, along with anabolic steroids themselves.

In late 2005, MLB instituted Suspension Penalties for Performance-Enhancing Drug Use in Sport. The agreement on regulations against steroid use in major league baseball (MLB) included a ban on "all substances regarded now, or in the future, by the federal government as steroids" as well as human growth hormone and steroid precursor hormones such as androstenedione. Suspension penalties for positive-test infractions under these new regulations
are shown in comparison to previous MLB regulations and those of other U.S. and international athletic organizations.
Positive Test
First Second Third Fourth Fifth
Pre-2005 counseling 15 days 25 days 50 days 1 year
Late 2005 50 games 100 games lifetime suspension, with right of
reinstatement after two years
Minor League
Baseball 15 days 30 days 60 days 1 year lifetime
National Football
League 4 games 6 games 1 year 1 year 1 year
National Basketball
Association 5 games 10 games 25 games 25 games 25 games
National Hockey
League —no testing for steroids—
World Anti-Doping
Association 2 years lifetime