Chapter[ Summary & Recommendations ]
Section[ B. The Problem Is Serious ]
B. The Problem Is Serious
The illegal use of performance enhancing substances poses a serious threat to the
integrity of the game. Widespread use by players of such substances unfairly disadvantages the
honest athletes who refuse to use them and raises questions about the validity of baseball records.
In addition, because they are breaking the law, users of these substances are vulnerable to drug
dealers who might seek to exploit their knowledge through threats intended to affect the outcome
of baseball games or otherwise.
The illegal use of these substances to improve athletic performance also carries
with it potentially serious negative side effects on the human body. Steroid users place
themselves at risk for psychiatric problems, cardiovascular and liver damage, drastic changes to
their reproductive systems, musculoskeletal injury, and other problems. Users of human growth
hormone risk cancer, harm to their reproductive health, cardiac and thyroid problems, and
overgrowth of bone and connective tissue.
Apart from the dangers posed to the major league player himself, however, his
use of performance enhancing substances encourages young athletes to use those substances.
Young Americans are placing themselves at risk of serious harm. Because adolescents are
already subject to significant hormonal changes, the abuse of steroids and other performance
enhancing substances can have more serious effects on them than they have on adults.3
Some estimates appear to show a recent decline in steroid use by high school
students; they range from 3 to 6 percent.4 But even the lower figure means that hundreds of
3 See Restoring Faith in America’s Pastime: Evaluating Major League Baseball’s Efforts
to Eradicate Steroid Use: Hearing Before the H. Comm. on Gov’t Reform, 109th Cong. 307
(2005) (statement of Dr. Kirk Brower).
4 National Institute on Drug Abuse, Monitoring the Future: Nat’l Survey Results on Drug
Use, 1975-2006, Vol. 1, at 44 (2006); Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National
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thousands of high school-aged young people are still illegally using steroids. It’s important to
devote attention to the Major League Baseball players who illegally used performance enhancing
substances. It’s at least as important, perhaps even more so, to be concerned about the reality
that hundreds of thousands of our children are using them. Every American, not just baseball
fans, ought to be shocked into action by that disturbing truth. The recent decline is welcome, but
we cannot be complacent.
Don Hooton, whose son committed suicide after abusing anabolic steroids,
created the Taylor Hooton Foundation for Fighting Steroid Abuse. In 2005 congressional
testimony, Mr. Hooton said:
I believe the poor example being set by professional athletes is a major
catalyst fueling the high usage of steroids amongst our kids. Our kids look
up to these guys. They want to do the things the pros do to be successful.
***
Our youngsters hear the message loud and clear, and it’s wrong. “If you
would want to achieve your goal, it’s OK to use steroids to get you there,
because the pros are doing it.” It’s a real challenge for parents to
overpower the strong message that’s being sent to our children by your
behavior.5
Finally, the illegal use in baseball of steroids and other performance enhancing
substances victimizes the majority of players who do not use those substances. A September
2000 study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse observed that:
‘Clean’ athletes face three choices: (1) compete without performance-
enhancing substances, knowing that they may lose to competitors with
fewer scruples; (2) abandon their quest because they are unwilling to use
performance-enhancing substances to achieve a decisive competitive
Youth Risk Behavior Survey: 1991-2003: Trends in the Prevalence of Marijuana, Cocaine and
Other Illegal Drug Use (2004).
5 Restoring Faith in America’s Pastime: Evaluating Major League Baseball’s Efforts to
Eradicate Steroid Use: Hearing Before the H. Comm. on Gov’t Reform, 109th Cong. 307 (2005)
(statement of Donald M. Hooton, president & director, Taylor Hooton Foundation).
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advantage; or (3) use performance-enhancing substances to level the
playing field.6
We heard from many former players who believed it was grossly unfair that some players were
using performance enhancing substances to gain an advantage. One former player told us that
one of the “biggest complaints” among players was that a “guy is using steroids and he is taking
my spot.”
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