BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE HEALTH
COMMITTEE ANALYSIS
Senator Deborah V. Ortiz, Chair
BILL NO: SB 37
S
AUTHOR: Speier
B
AMENDED: As introduced and as proposed to be amended
HEARING DATE: April 6, 2005
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FISCAL: Education / Appropriations
7
CONSULTANT:
Dunstan / ak
SUBJECT
Steroids and Performance-enhancing Dietary supplements
SUMMARY
This measure requires the Department of Health Services
(DHS) to prepare a list of prohibited substances including
performance-enhancing dietary supplements that teachers,
coaches and other school employees cannot sell or promote.
This bill also requires each high school sports coach to
complete a coaching education program.
ABSTRACT
Existing state law:
1.Sets out the rights and responsibilities of pupils in
public school and requires school employees to comply
with various educational requirements.
2.Provides that the governing board of each school district
shall have general control of, and be responsible for,
all aspects of the interscholastic athletic policies,
programs, and activities in its district, including, but
not limited to, eligibility, season of sport, number of
sports, personnel and sports facilities.
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3.Finds that the use of anabolic steroids to expedite the
physical development and to enhance the performance level
of secondary school athletes presents a serious health
hazard to student athletes.
4.States the legislative intent that schools be encouraged
to include information on the effect of the use of
anabolic steroids in science or health education
instruction for grades 7-12.
5.Establishes the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Law
which provides for the regulation of the processing;
labeling; advertising; and sale of food, drugs, and
cosmetics, as defined, including dietary supplements,
under the administration of DHS.
6.Prohibits the sale or distribution of any dietary
supplement containing ephedrine group alkaloids, except
when such products are prescribed or dispensed by a
licensed health care practitioner.
7.Makes it a misdemeanor to furnish a steroid hormone
precursor to a person under 18 years of age.
8.Authorizes a superintendent or principal of a school to
suspend or expel a pupil if it is determined that the
pupil unlawfully possessed, used, sold or otherwise
furnished, or was under the influence of any controlled
substance, if the act is related to a school activity,
occurs on school grounds, or occurs during school hours.
9.States legislative intent that there should be a training
program for coaches to be administered by school
districts.
Existing federal law:
1.Establishes the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and
Education Act, which creates dietary supplements as a
separate category of products.
This bill:
1.Requires DHS to develop a list of prohibited substances
for high school sports.
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2.Directs DHS to include on the list any substance that is
a performance-enhancing dietary supplement as defined in
federal law and is on the banned substances list used by
the National Collegiate Athletic Association or the World
Anti-Doping Agency.
3.Requires DHS to annually update the list of prohibited
substances.
4.Requires DHS to submit the list to the California
Department of Education (CDE) for the purpose of
notifying school districts and posting on CDE's web site.
5.Prohibits a teacher, athletic director, sports coach or
other school official from selling distributing or
promoting prohibited substances as identified by DHS.
6.Prohibits a school from accepting a sponsorship from a
manufacturer of a prohibited substance identified by DHS.
7.Requires that a pupil may not participate in
interscholastic high school sports unless the student
agrees not to use any of the prohibited substances
identified by DHS and a parent or guardian signs a
notification form regarding those restrictions.
8.Requires each high school sports coach to complete a
coaching education program that includes education on the
use of performance-enhancing dietary supplements and
steroids by adolescents by December 31, 2008.
9.Establishes that the high school sports coach is
responsible for the costs of the program.
FISCAL IMPACT
Unknown.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
The nation's attention lately has been focused on the use
of anabolic steroids by professional athletes. The
discovery of a designer steroid traced to the Bay Area
laboratory, BALCO, sparked an inquiry into steroid use by
Major League Baseball players and other elite athletes that
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culminated most recently in a Congressional hearing on
MLB's banned substances and drug testing policies.
The attention focused on professional sports has occurred,
in part, because of the possible harmful effects on
juveniles who closely follow professional sports and
athletes. State and national surveys confirm the concern
and show that teenagers' use of performance-enhancing
substances is at troubling levels. These substances
include anabolic steroids, which are schedule III
controlled substances, and dietary supplements purporting
to improve athletic performance. According to Blue Cross
and Blue Shield Association, in a study released in 2003
over 1.1 million adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17
had taken "potentially dangerous performance-enhancing
supplements and drugs." Ignorance of the effects was
widespread with over two-thirds of the surveyed teenagers
unable to name any of the potential side-effects of
steroids or supplements.
Many dietary supplement products available over-the-counter
or on the Internet contain potentially dangerous
ingredients, including androstenedione (andro) and ephedra.
Dietary supplement products have been reported to cause
negative health consequences, including acne, kidney
problems, reproductive difficulties and even death.
The dangers of anabolic steroid abuse have been well
documented by medical research. They include long-term and
short-term damage to the body, including heart failure and
liver disease. Both the use and the discontinuance of
steroids have been linked to profound psychological harm,
including deep depression and suicide ideation. In
children, steroids cause the early onset of puberty and can
permanently stunt growth by sealing growth plates in bones
too soon.
The vast majority of performance-enhancing supplements -
like all dietary supplements - are subject to no
significant regulation in their manufacturing process and
undergo no testing before hitting store shelves. Under the
federal Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994
(DSHEA), dietary supplements are given less scrutiny by the
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Food and Drug Administration (FDA) than foods and
significantly less scrutiny than drugs despite their
potential to have profound drug-like effects on the body.
Studies have demonstrated the likelihood that dietary
supplements are adulterated with substances not identified
on their labels, including controlled substances such as
testosterone.
In its oversight of dietary supplements, the FDA has been
hamstrung by DSHEA, which put the burden of proof on
regulators to demonstrate the harm of a dietary supplement.
There is no mandated reporting of problems, including
deaths, to the FDA. To date, the FDA has removed only one
dietary supplement, ephedra, from the market, and was able
to do so only after receiving thousands of adverse event
reports. The FDA's action came after California had banned
ephedra from sale to minors
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) on
supplements
The NCAA notes:
Many nutritional/dietary supplements contain NCAA
banned substances. In addition, the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) does not strictly regulate
the supplement industry; therefore purity and safety
of nutritional/dietary supplements cannot be
guaranteed. Impure supplements may lead to a
positive NCAA drug test.
Senate Hearing
At a January 2002 joint informational hearing of the Senate
Health and Human Services Committee and the Senate Select
Committee on Government Oversight, information was
presented that secondary school students are using
potentially lethal drugs to boost their sports prowess. At
a second hearing in March 2004, the Senate Select Committee
on Government Oversight heard from parents, coaches,
student athletes, and representatives of the professional
sports world on the failure of our schools to adequately
address teen use of performance-enhancers. According to
the author's office, witnesses at the hearing made the
following arguments:
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Coaches are inadequately educated on the dangers of
steroids and sports supplements. Student athletes are
often told by coaches to gain weight in order to make the
cut for a starting position. The pressure to add
significant amounts of weight causes students to turn to
potentially dangerous performance-enhancers. In
California, coaches are not required to take special
courses that would include training on the dangers of
steroids and supplements. Several states other than
California mandate that school coaches go through a
training program. These include: Alabama, Alaska,
Kentucky, Minnesota, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire,
Oregon, New Mexico, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, and
Virginia.
Coaches are ignorant about performance-enhancing dietary
supplements. Many coaches may not intend for students to
use performance-enhancing dietary supplements or may not
even encourage their use. However a recent survey
conducted by GNC Pro Performance found that 43 percent of
coaches make product recommendations to their athletes.
The same survey found that 87 percent of high school and
collegiate coaches believe nutritional supplements to be
safe.
California has no binding statewide policy on how
steroids and supplements must be treated in the classroom
or in interscholastic sports regulations. There are
sample and advisory policies regarding anabolic steroids
that are available to school districts. In contrast, the
NCAA has bylaws governing what categories of supplements
member institutions can distribute to student athletes.
California has no prohibition in state law on the
promotion and distribution of performance-enhancers in
schools, nor is there a prohibition against schools
accepting sponsorships from dietary supplement
manufacturers. Foothill High School in Sacramento,
California, hosts an annual wrestling tournament called
the Foothill/Advocare Invitational. Advocare is a
dietary supplement manufacturer that markets
performance-enhancing dietary supplements to minors (some
of which are clearly marked as not for use by children).
According to Foothill High, Advocare has sponsored the
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tournament for one year and has recently agreed to
sponsor ongoing years' events.
Related Legislation
SB 1630 (Speier, 2004) was an earlier version of SB 37.
The legislation was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger.
In his veto message, the governor said he was vetoing the
bill because it focused on performance-enhancing dietary
supplements and not on ensuring that students are not
engaged in steroid use. The message also noted
difficulties with the technical definition of
performance-enhancing dietary supplements.
SB 779 (Speier, 2004) required dietary supplement
manufacturers and distributors to report consumer health
complaints to DHS. This bill died on the Assembly Floor.
SB 1444 (Speier, Chapter 859, Statutes of 2004) prohibits
the sale of a dietary supplement containing specified
components to anyone under the age of 18.
SB 582, (Speier, Chapter 903, Statutes of 2003) prohibits
the sale or distribution of any dietary supplement
products containing ephedrine group alkaloids.
SB 1884, (Speier, Chapter 1005, Statutes of 2002)
prohibits the sale or distribution of any dietary
supplement product containing ephedrine group alkaloids
or steroid hormone precursors, unless the product has a
specified warning label.
AB 2741 (Miller, Chapter 744, Statutes of 1999) expresses
the intent of the Legislature to establish a California
High School Coaching Education and Training Program, to
be administered by local school districts.
Arguments in support
The California School Boards Association supports the bill
because it addresses the issues related to the use of
steroids and performance-enhancing dietary supplement by
student athletes by instituting training and education
programs for coaches. The California Interscholastic
Federation supports the bill because it believes the use of
performance-enhancing dietary supplements by student
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athletes can cause unknown and serious health problems.
They support a prohibition on the use of
performance-enhancing dietary supplements as a condition
for participating in college athletics.
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Comment
A mock-up of the bill as proposed to be amended is
attached.
POSITIONS
Support: California Alliance for Consumer Protection
California Family Alliance
California Interscholastic Federation
California Nurses Association
California School Boards Association
California State PTA
Taylor Hooten Foundation
One individual
Oppose: None Received
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