Chapter[ XI. Recommendations ]
Section[ C. 4. Players Need to Understand the Non-Health Effects of Buying Performance Enhancing Substances from Street Dealers and “Internet Pharmacies” ]
4. Players Need to Understand the Non-Health Effects of Buying Performance Enhancing Substances from Street Dealers and “Internet Pharmacies”
In addition to the obvious health risks of using performance enhancing substances
of unknown origin, players place their livelihoods and reputations in the hands of drug dealers.
The public outcry over the use of performance enhancing substances in professional sports has
provided the substance dealer with an opportunity to exploit his relationship with a player. The
Commissioner’s Office has been concerned for decades that drug dealers could blackmail a
player to alter the outcome of a game in exchange for maintaining the secrecy of the player’s
substance use.578 Such threats to the integrity of the game are as serious as gambling. Major
League Baseball’s performance enhancing substance educational program must convey the
gravity of these dangers to the reputation and integrity of the players and of the game.
576 Many Mexican manufacturers of veterinary steroids altered their production to
account for increased demand for human use of steroids in the United States. See George
Dohrmann & Luis Fernando Llosa, Special Report: Steroid Trafficking – the Mexican
Connection, Sports Illustrated, Apr. 24, 2006, at 68. In December 2005, the DEA announced a
law enforcement operation, called “Operation Gear Grinder,” in which eight veterinary steroid
manufacturers were raided by federal law enforcement authorities. See Press Release, DEA
Leads Largest Steroids Bust in History (Dec. 15, 2005); see also Michael O’Keeffe, Drug
Enforcement Administration Steroid Crackdown Hits Home, N.Y. Daily News, Dec. 18, 2005.
577 See Press Release, Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA Announces Largest
Steroid Enforcement Action in U.S. History (Sept. 24, 2007).
578 See Memorandum from Commissioner Peter Ueberroth to All Clubs Re: Baseball’s
Drug Education and Prevention Program, dated May 14, 1985, at 1.
301
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