USA: Baseball close to adopting policy to curb performance drug use

With members of Congress ready to step in and get the job done if Major League Baseball and its players' union didn't, an agreement has finally been hammered out that should eliminate the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Owners approved the agreement last week. The Associated Press reported that the players' association executive board approval is considered a formality. The panel will decide when it meets Dec. 5-9 in Henderson, Nev., whether all players should vote to ratify the agreement or if board approval is sufficient.

Under the new rules, steroid users will be suspended for 50 games after one positive test, 100 games for a second offense and banned for life if they test positive a third time.

Congress is considering legislation that would strip professional sports leagues of the power to police themselves in drug matters and institute a national standard modeled on the Olympics — a two-year suspension for the first offense.

While we favored a "zero-tolerance policy" of one strike and out, we'll go along with this compromise as being tough enough.

The deal also adds amphetamines to the list of baseball's banned substances. A first positive test for amphetamines would require additional mandatory testing. A second offense would draw a 25-game suspension, a third offense would result in an 80-game suspension, and the penalty for a fourth would be at the commissioner's discretion.

That's a start, but why not make use of speed subject to the same three-strikes rule for steroids?

When it comes to these substances, the operative words are "performance enhancing" and such drugs have no place in professional sports at any level.

Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Sarah Jenkins and Bill Lee.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org/amphetablog.html
Pubdate: Wed, 23 Nov 2005
Source: Yakima Herald-Republic
Website: http://www.yakima-herald.com/
Copyright: 2005 - Yakima Herald-Republic