UNFORESEEN VICTIMS OF ANTI-ANDRO BILL

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http://hfn-usa.com/articles/030311.html

 

DHEA, 7-KETO DHEA, PREGNENOLONE UNFORESEEN VICTIMS OF ANTI-ANDRO BILL

 

By Patrick Arnold

 

If you're one of the millions of Americans who enjoy and benefit from anti-aging

supplements, be afraid. Be very afraid. Certain members of Congress are intent

on taking them away from you, and placing you under arrest if you possess them!

Sounds far-fetched? It's frighteningly real, extremely serious, and absolutely

imminent! But amazingly, practically nobody in the anti-aging / life-extension

community is aware of it, much less is denouncing it in the media.

 

The villain is the so-called " Anti-Andro Bill " - H.R. 207 - introduced last

October by U.S. Representatives Sweeney and Osborne. Purporting to address the

use of muscle-building " andro " supplements by teens, this alarming and wildly

overbroad bill would have devastating effects on mature adults throughout

America. It would actually permit the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to

schedule a wide variety of currently over-the-counter nutritional supplements as

controlled substances. In effect, this bill would authorize the arrest and

criminal prosecution of millions of Americans as drug offenders -- just for

possessing supplements like DHEA, 7-keto DHEA, and pregnenolone! Those caught

with these currently legal supplements -- proven to have powerful health

benefits and anti-aging properties -- would even be subject to federal asset

forfeiture laws, permitting the government to seize and retain private property!

All this would be done by making an end-run around the proper lawful procedures,

and without any evidence of legitimate public health concerns or dangers to

American adults. The bill seeks to deal a staggering blow to nutritional

supplement freedom and the Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act (DSHEA)!

 

 

Sounds too outrageous to be true? Think again!

 

 

The Anatomy of H.R. 207 The intention of the bill is supposedly to keep

testosterone precursors like androstenedione away from teens. But rather than

restricting sales of these items to minors, H.R. 207 would restrict all steroid

hormone precursors from people of all ages. And not by making them prescription

medicines, but by reclassifying them as controlled substances (see sidebar for

the specific definition of what a " controlled substance " is). The bill would

accomplish this by " bootstrapping " these compounds into the federal Anabolic

Steroid Control Act. This act was a 1990 revision to the original Controlled

Substances Act of 1970, and it reclassified anabolic steroids from simple

prescription medicines to highly restricted Schedule III controlled substances.

Mere possession of a schedule III controlled substance without a valid

prescription is a federal drug offense with serious potential penalties that can

even include jail time. Let's look at the actual language of the bill. It's

crucial that life extensionists and anti-aging enthusiasts understand what this

language really means, because it was written that way for a reason. That

reason, chillingly, is to allow the government to extend its grasp far beyond

testosterone precursors and teens, giving them the power to control non-andro

steroid hormone precursors (DHEA, 7-keto DHEA, pregnenolone, etc.) and the

mature adults who take them. The following is the heart of the bill:

 

SECTION 1. SCHEDULING OF CERTAIN SUBSTANCES.

 

(a) DEFINITION- Section 102(23) of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C.

802(23)) is amended--

 

(1) by striking `(A)' and inserting `(B)(i)';

 

(2) by striking `(B)' and inserting `(ii);

 

(3) by striking `©' and inserting `(iii); and

 

(4) by inserting after `means a substance--' the following new subparagraph:

 

`(A) which the Attorney General has found to be, and by regulation designated as

being, the immediate chemical precursor of an anabolic steroid that has been

scheduled as a controlled substance (hereinafter in this subparagraph referred

to as `scheduled anabolic steroid') which either is a metabolite of a scheduled

anabolic steroid or is transformed in the body directly into a scheduled

anabolic steroid or the metabolite of a scheduled anabolic steroid; or'.

 

(b) PLACEMENT ON SCHEDULE- Section 201(e) of the Controlled Substances Act (21

U.S.C. 811(e)) is amended--

 

(1) by inserting `or for the immediate precursor of a scheduled anabolic

steroid, without regard to the requirements of section 102(41), including the

requirement that the substance promote muscle growth' after `section 202(b)';

and

 

(2) by adding at the end the following: `However, once an immediate precursor

described in section 102(23)(A) is placed in a schedule pursuant to this

section, it becomes a controlled substance and the Attorney General may schedule

an immediate precursor of that substance in accordance with this section.

 

While all this legalese may seem overly technical, it's very important to

understand the scope of what's written here. The key language starts in

paragraph 1(a)(4). This is where the primary qualifications for a controlled

steroid precursor are outlined in a new subparagraph " (A) " . Interpreted simply,

this new subparagraph says that an immediate precursor to a controlled anabolic

steroid shall itself become a controlled anabolic steroid. Case in point:

immediately upon passage of this bill, androstenedione, which is the precursor

to the controlled anabolic steroid testosterone, will automatically become a

controlled steroid.

 

All right, that part is pretty obvious. It's in subsection 1(b) where the

sneakiness begins. First off, look at the troubling language of paragraph

1(b)(1): " *without regard to * the requirement that the substance promote muscle

growth " (emphasis added). This language changes the bill from one designed to

simply eliminate the supposedly muscle-promoting andro products, to a bill that

eliminates ALL steroid precursors - such as anti-aging precursors like 7-keto

and pregnenolone that have absolutely nothing to do with muscle mass.

 

Precursors of Precursors of Precursors*

 

Okay, so the real intention is revealed in 1(b)(1). It's in 1(b)(2) that the

mechanics of how the anti-aging steroid precursors will be swept up. This

paragraph states, in effect, that not only precursors of anabolic steroids will

be controlled, but precursors of precursors of anabolic steroids, and then

precursors of precursors of precursors, etc. Get the picture? This is the silver

bullet, folks, because look at how it works:

 

 

 

This is one of the main metabolic pathways of pregnenolone to testosterone. H.R.

207 is written so that androstenedione, because of its conversion to

testosterone, becomes classified as a controlled substance. Now, according to

paragraph 1(b)(2), the Attorney General can then declare DHEA a controlled

substance because it is the immediate precursor of androstenedione, now a

controlled substance. As soon as that is completed, the process can repeat

itself with 17alpha-hydroxypregenolone and finally end with pregnenolone being

classified. There they go, like dominoes, all criminalized by simple

administrative act. At that point, there's not much any person, agency, or

citizen's action group can do about it. It's already the law of the land, and

you're a criminal if you violate it.

 

Don't Forget the Metabolites!

 

What about 7-keto DHEA? Does it escape the tentacles of this far-reaching bill?

No hope there, I'm afraid. They were careful not to leave that one out. Take a

look at this:

 

 

 

7-keto DHEA is not a precursor of DHEA; however it is a metabolite. Now if you

look back to the new subparagraph (A) proposed in 1(a)(4), you will see that

they modified the language to include metabolites as well. They obviously wrote

this bill with the intention to make it as broad in scope as possible - to go

beyond just the andro-type immediate precursors and to swipe up every steroid

hormone precursor product being sold today as a nutritional supplement!!!

 

Wake Up, America!

 

If you are a life extensionist or anti-aging supplement user, then we are going

to spell it out for you. Don't be deceived by the stated goals of this bill.

This dangerous bill tries to sneak dietary products that are dear to you into a

bill that is being promoted to Congress and to the media as seeking to ban

over-the-counter anabolic steroids. With images of kids taking andro to hit home

runs like Mark McGwire in the mind of Congress, coupled with the support of the

United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), the NFL, and the NCAA, the political

pressure to vote for this bill is almost overwhelming. Unfortunately, what the

proponents of this bill are NOT telling anyone is that this bill is about a lot

more than andro. It's also about sneaking in as many other supplements as

possible - supplements that do NOT have the stigma of andro, and that otherwise

would be much more difficult to eliminate from shelves.

 

You Must Act Immediately!!

 

H.R. 207 is a high priority bill that has received tremendous media coverage the

past several weeks in a wide variety of outlets including The New York Times and

The Washington Post. Rep. Sweeney has made clear that he is going to push as

hard as possible to get it passed quickly.

 

Unfortunately, right now there is practically no resistance to this bill. With

its politically popular " save our teens " message and well-hidden assaults on

adult freedoms, H.R. 207 is basically a home run - that is, unless we act and

act quickly!! Scream out to the politicians on Capitol Hill that mature American

adults want supplement freedom, not an expansion of the war on drugs into our

very own neighborhood health food stores! Please contact the United Supplement

Freedom Association, Inc. (USFA), a not-for-profit coalition dedicated to the

preservation of nutritional freedoms for American adults. You can visit online

right now at www.USFA.biz, where you can follow the instructions on how to

petition your congressional representatives to demand that they fight this

bill!! A form letter and list of representatives is available. Alternatively,

you can write and contribute to the USFA through the association's general

counsel, Rick Collins, Esq., United Supplement Freedom Association, Inc., One

Old Country Road, Suite 250, Carle Place, New York, 11514.

 

WE must act immediately to let our voice be heard, or face the beginning of the

end of our supplement freedoms!!!

 

 

Gettingwell- / Vitamins, Herbs, Aminos, etc.

 

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Or, go to our group site: Gettingwell

 

 

 

 

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