Feds raid as Senate puts heat on supplement industry
The Sports ITeam Blog
by Teri Thompson, Christian Red, Michael O'Keeffe, and Nathaniel Vinton
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http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/iteam/2009/09/feds-continue-raids-as-senate.html#ixzz0ShQjKwBWIt lasted only two hours, and was attended by only two senators, but Tuesday's Senate hearing on the proliferation of steroids within the relatively unregulated nutritional supplement industry must have sent a little tremor of fear through that $25 billion industry.
With senators exploring the closing of loopholes, federal agents staging a series of raids on distributors and the head of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency signaling a new initiative (possibly backed by American professional leagues) to push for greater regulatory reform, it seems like a likely time for tighter laws, increased enforcement of existing laws, or both.
"Law enforcement can only do so much," said Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Ut.) during Tuesday's hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on crime and drugs. Hatch, joined by his old colleague Sen. Arlen Specter (D.-Pa.), said he thought the FDA was overburdened and under- funded, and supported a crackdown on "bad actors" in the industry - of which he has been an ardent supporter, since Utah is the world's capital of nutritional supplements. Hatch was an author of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, which critics say made huge loopholes for steroid distribution.
The biggest target could very well be the category of bodybuilding supplements known as prohormones - the precursors to steroids that can convert to performance-enhancing substances once ingested. The most notorious examples are 19-norandrostenedione, which has triggered countless positive drug tests in Olympic sports, and androstenedione, made famous when it was spotted in Mark McGwire's locker, initiating a series of questions about what else was fueling his home run performances. (Days before a congressional hearing on steroids in baseball, the Daily News published a devastating series of stories about McGwire's use of anabolic steroids).
Steve Cardillo, the owner of American Nutrition Center, a small sports nutrition shop in Everett, Mass, said small, independent retailers like him aren't worried about the possibility of tighter restrictions on their merchandise. He said prohormones account for only about five percent of his business. He has, however, watched with interest as distributors become targets of a recent crackdown by the FDA (led in part by agents who uncovered the BALCO doping conspiracy).
Cardillo, who makes weight-lifting belts for bodybuilders and pro athletes, said the industry is abuzz over the trouble at Bodybuilding.com, an Idaho-based company that was raided last week and accused of selling and marketing anabolic steroids.
"Once they start cutting it off at the distribution level, then that will just sever the line of getting this stuff," said Cardillo. "You cut the big vein and it never gets to the small stuff. It puts fear into these people and everyone's trying to get rid of their stuff. They want it out of their buildings."
One thing is for certain, Cardillo said: as soon as there is any sign that these products will go off the market because the government thinks they come too close to anabolic steroids, Cardillo's clients will rush out to stock up on prohormones while they can. He recalled a similar rush on Ephedra several years ago.
"Once you can't have it, everybody wants it," said Cardillo. "That's the nature of everything in life. That will get it out of the pipeline even faster. Everyone's going to clamor for it. Everyone's going to grab it before it's gone."
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http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/iteam/2009/09/feds-continue-raids-as-senate.html#ixzz0ShQemwR9
