Wadler, who is attending the ACSM Annual Meeting in St. Louis this week, said that the subject of steroid use in baseball peaked in 1998, when Mark McGwire admitted to the use of the testosterone precursor, androstenedione. Unlike the natural steroid, testosterone and related synthetic steroids, which are controlled under Federal Controlled Substances Act, the so-called steroid precursors, such as androstenedione are considered dietary supplements and are widely available without a prescription.

McGwire's use of androstenedione focused national attention on the need to revisit the Dietary Supplement and Health Education Act of 1994 both with respect to androstenedione and the ephedras, another category of supplements widely used in sports because of their adverse health effects. To date no such hearings have occurred.

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The revelation of anabolic steroid abuse in baseball will undoubtedly refocus attention on the abuse of anabolic steroids in professional sports. Unlike the sports governed by the Olympic Movement and the NCAA, the rules and regulations of professional sports are the product of collective bargaining. Both the unions and management must agree on a whole range of issues of which drugs and drug testing are but a part. It is within this context that organized baseball does not have a collective bargaining agreement that permits random out of competition testing for steroids, the only way to substantially limit the abuse of these dangerous drugs.