USA Today article on the Bunning/McCain Steroid Bill

[J.R.]

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Instituting harsh punishments will not have the desired results. Many of the players caught in the past year were players that might not have even had a career in baseball if not for steroids. What the hell would it matter to them if they were caught juicing and kicked out of the sport?

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this bill is not about the players. but even then, you really think increasing the current MLB penalty provisions to those proposed by Congress would not significantly promote deterence. This is an enourmous economic penalty. Sure maybe not so much for guys on the tail end of their careers, especially those with a history of use, but I have little doubt this will be effective. Minor league abuse is down (at least we hear so), and they have a real policy.

This is about baseball being scared about the marketing and attendance consequences of cleaning up the game at the MLB level and risking a hit to the games perceived star power and excitement. Ineffecient, unfair, meddlesome, draconian, or even a waste of time give the more pressing issues congress has- sure, but its not without some degree of efficacy. Is it a knee jerk political reaction, a slam dunk for your public profile if you're mccain or bunning or feingold (sp?)? yes. but our government is not without lots of examples of shamelesly ill conceived self-promoting legislation, and thes efolks hands were tied when fehr called their bluff/blew them off. This was so easily avoided, baseball's management on both sides blew a 3-0 fastball right down the pipe.

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We don't even fully know the effects of many drugs such as steroids because of the "drugs are bad, mmmkay?" mentality the governement and schools take with regards to education. I think we all remember the DARE program.

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whatever. this isn't a pot is bad because its a gateway drug to harder recreational substances even though its health risks ands benefits are contested. PEDS were developed as medicines and it is the medical community which has recognized the dangers of unsupervised PED use and abuse. Does science precisely understand HGH, testosterone and even steroid precurses like andro's full long term effect? No, but does that change the fact that there are real and indispited negative health consequences associated with the bulk of the PEDs at issue in this debate.

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As for teenagers doing this on their own, I can't imagine most teenagers who self-acquire the drugs getting something much better than some of the lowest quality stuff out there.

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Neither did clowns like giambi and raffy (deca and winstrol). But its not a quality issue such that high quality PEDS are far medically safer than cheap low, grade knockoffs. Peds are peds and are pretty much universally dangerous substances to use, even under medical care and supervision.

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If a kid doesn't know the difference between what Barry Bonds is taking and what he's taking, of course that's a recipe for disaster.

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Huh? Taking most any PED is a recipe for disaster, what a kid knows or doesn't know about THG has nothing to do with the physiological effects of whatever other PED he is taking.