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Lessons From the Celebrity Doping ScandalWhen will the press understand the difference between HGH and anabolic steroids?

By Daniel EngberPosted Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2008, at 5:04 PM ET

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Coverage of the celebrity doping scandal in other newspapers treats HGH and steroids as if they were interchangeable. The New York Times describes how "the drugs" have some legitimate uses, but "misuse of the drugs can be harmful." The Associated Press declared without qualification that "athletes use steroids and human growth hormone to get bigger, faster and stronger," and that "the drugs lure other people with their supposed anti-aging qualities."

Slate is just as guilty. We conflated the two medications in a feature called "The Steroids Social Network," which listed the baseball players and trainers named by confessed drug dealer Kirk Radomski in the Mitchell report. In fact, more than one-third of the 53 players were accused of taking HGH only and have never been linked to steroids.

How did this confusion become so widespread? First, both drugs are being dispensed by the same crooked doctors and pharmacies. (And, in many cases, doctors do prescribe both drugs to the same patient.) When federal agents raid an "anti-aging" clinic in Florida, they aren't so concerned with the specific meds that went to each user; they're gathering evidence for a broader case against the dealers. Embedded reporters watch the feds seize thousands of pounds of documents from file cabinets and dumpsters, and then file ambiguous copy about the sales of performance-enhancing drugs, "including steroids and human growth hormone."

Second, the rhetoric of a war on drugs makes it impossible for a league commissioner or politician to draw any real distinctions between doping agents. Neither Bud Selig nor the lawmakers who questioned him today can risk appearing soft on performance enhancers, even when it comes to a soft drug like HGH. Now Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., are trying to codify this dunderheaded posturing: Each has introduced a bill to amend the Controlled Substances Act so that human growth hormone would be equivalent to anabolic steroids under federal law.

That would be a disturbing development. At this point, the federal drug laws are the only rational voice left in the doping debate.

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Daniel Engber is a senior editor at Slate. He can be reached at .
Photograph of Mary J. Blige by Kevin Winter/Getty Images. Photograph of Mary J. Blige on Slate's home page by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images.
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