Pubdate: Mon, 24 Jun 2002
Source: Christian Science Monitor (US)
Copyright: 2002 The Christian Science Publishing Society
Contact:  http://www.csmonitor.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/83

NEW LAWS CURB TEEN SPORT DRUGS

As Diet Supplements Gain Popularity, States Move to Regulate Use By Young 
Athletes

OAKLAND, CALIF. - The days when performance-enhancing drugs were the stuff 
of East German Olympians and a few light-witted linebackers are over.

On high school football fields from Nebraska to California, students are 
turning themselves into pad-clad rockets by taking pills that give them an 
abnormal surge of strength - and have been blamed for 80 deaths nationwide. 
Teenage linemen weighing 300 lbs., once unheard of, are now as common as 
helmets and cleats - a trend many attribute, in part, to the rise of 
bodybuilding supplements.

Even at Big Spring Middle School in Pennsylvania, 3.6 percent of 
eighth-graders say they've used steroids - a figure one point higher than 
the national average.

The use of such drugs among teens, scientists say, can cause long-term 
health problems. So, as more students look to supplements to give them the 
perfect body or a more powerful swing, an unprecedented number of states 
are moving to regulate an industry that has been left largely to its own 
devices.

None of the bills has yet become law, and most are still in the early 
stages. Yet the groundswell of concern is a sign that lawmakers and parents 
are beginning to subject performance-enhancing supplements to a new level 
of scrutiny, as abuse by teens becomes a widespread public-health problem.

The raft of state bills "is the biggest and most coordinated trend we've 
seen," says Bernard Griesemer, a scientist at the HealthTracks Center in 
Springfield, Mo., "and the reason is that we're now starting to see some of 
the adverse effects."

Among the legislation:

Proposed bills in California, Iowa, and New York would ban the sale to 
minors of certain types of dietary supplements deemed dangerous. Under one 
plan, Tennessee would ban the sale of one such supplement - ephedra - 
altogether.

Several states, including West Virginia and Washington, are considering 
limits on the amount of ephedra that can be sold legally.

New York has looked at making androstenedione [an-druh-steen-DY-own] - a 
muscle-builder that is a chemical precursor of steroids - available only 
with a prescription.

California also has a bill that would require all sporting organizations 
that wish to play in the state and have revenues of more than $1 billion to 
require drug testing. New York has a similar bill. Both target Major League 
Baseball, which is the only major team sport with no significant drug 
policy. Sponsors say baseball is setting an unhealthy example for young 
players.

If the drug-testing bills pass, baseball will have no one to blame but 
itself. Rarely has the issue of performance-enhancing substances been more 
central to the American conversation, and the cause can be traced directly 
to recent allegations by several former stars.

In quick succession, former Most Valuable Players Jose Canseco and Ken 
Caminiti admitted to steroid use during their careers. Perhaps more 
damaging, though, has been their estimate that between 50 and 85 percent of 
major league players use steroids.

Tellingly, their figures have been contested, but the substance of their 
statements has not. The furor has even reached Capitol Hill, where Congress 
last week held hearings on drugs in baseball.

It's a subject that infuriates Don Perata. "I know how professional players 
are icons today, the same way [Willie] Mays and [Stan] Musial were for me," 
says the California state senator from Oakland and sponsor of the 
drug-testing bill. But, he asks, what are these revelations telling today's 
children?

When Mark McGwire became the most beloved baseball player of his generation 
on his way to 70 home runs in 1998, he acknowledged that he was using 
"andro." Now, with stories of steroid use by some of the game's best 
players, he fears young people will see doping as a legitimate step toward 
beauty and athletic success.

Many already do. One million children ages 12 to 17 use supplements, 
according to a survey by Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Some 16 percent of boys take creatine, the most popular supplement, simply 
to look better and more muscular. Sales of androstenedione - which is 
banned by the National Football League and the International Olympic 
Committee - rose five-fold after McGwire's home-run binge, with demand high 
among teens.

Perhaps the supplement of greatest concern, though, is ephedra. Taken right 
before games, practices, or workouts, ephedra has become a kind of ecstasy 
for the athletic world. Just as the party drug ecstasy provides a rush of 
energy for dancers hopping from one nightclub to the next, ephedra provides 
a boost, raising players' heart rate and metabolism.

High schoolers call it "juicing," and in the heat of late-summer practices, 
it can have fatal consequences.

The health effects of androstenedione and creatine are less clear. Most 
scientists say andro - which is one enzyme removed from being a steroid - 
can produce the same undesirable side effects as its relative, including 
increased aggressiveness. They are more split on creatine, which can cause 
some weight gain through water retention, but has proven safe in many tests.

Almost universally, however, they say that ephedra and andro are not 
appropriate for teens, and creatine - if taken at all - should be taken 
under close adult supervision.

"It is a growing public-health crisis," says Iris Shaffer of Blue Cross 
Blue Shield's Healthy Competition Foundation in Chicago.

She and others point to the lack of federal regulation as a primary 
problem. A 1994 act of Congress gives the US Food and Drug Administration 
relatively little authority over supplement makers. For instance, 
supplements need not, like drugs, be tested for safety before going to 
market, and the FDA has so far been slow to establish minimum standards for 
quality.

Some problems have been as basic as false labeling. One study found that 
more than 40 percent of products included things that were not on their 
labels, didn't include things that were on their labels, or had the dosages 
wrong. (The industry acknowledges the problem, but puts the percentage much 
lower.)

More fundamentally, though, a growing body of data suggests that abuse can 
lead to serious medical problems. As teen use and abuse rises, states like 
California are seeing a lack of oversight and trying to fill it.

"California has taken a leading position on this," says Frank Uryasz of the 
National Center for Drug Free Sports in Kansas City, Mo. "We will begin to 
see more and more states address this because the federal government 
doesn't appear to be interested in stepping in."
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