Governator Bans Supplements for HSers in CA

[rainbowgirl28]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f ... F4LFO1.DTL

GOVERNOR SIGNS BILLS AIMED AT TEEN BEHAVIOR
DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS: Groundbreaking law for high school athletes dietary supplements: Bill forbids use among high school athletes
Mark Martin, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau
Saturday, October 8, 2005

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Sacramento -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, battling sagging poll numbers and accusations of potential conflicts of interest, signed two bills Friday regulating industries that have helped build his personal fortune. Schwarzenegger portrayed himself as a protector of children while signing a bill that bans the sale or rental of extremely violent video games to children and another that bans the use of dietary supplements by high school athletes.

After Schwarzenegger vetoed similar bills last year, opponents said he was influenced by his movie persona and his lucrative connections to the bodybuilding industry.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger agreed Friday to regulate an industry he has been closely allied with by signing legislation forbidding California's 700,000 high school athletes from using some dietary supplements.

The first-of-its-kind law propels the state into the forefront of a growing push for more government involvement to slow supplement and steroid use among teenagers. Schwarzenegger's signature also gives the governor and former bodybuilder political cover from charges that he was too close to an industry that is intertwined with his glamorous past.

Schwarzenegger vetoed similar legislation last year, and the veto sparked controversy this summer when two fitness magazines revealed an agreement with the governor that could have netted him more than $8 million. The magazines earn much of their income from the supplement industry, which buys splashy advertisements in the publications promising bulging muscles.

Schwarzenegger quit the lucrative job as editor of the two magazines, and signing the bill -- which was opposed by the industry -- was seen as his only viable option by political experts.

"He clearly realized there was a problem if he didn't sign it,'' said Barbara O'Connor, director of the Institute for the Study of Politics and the Media at Cal State Sacramento.

Schwarzenegger's press secretary, Margita Thompson, disputed that, however, saying the governor was signing the bill this year because it was a better-written version.

The new law will require the state to develop a list of banned supplements, based on a list already compiled by the federal agency that monitors Olympic athletes, and will require student-athletes to sign a pledge not to use the supplements. For example, the supplement synephrine, a weight-loss product, will be banned.

It will also prohibit supplement companies from promoting their products at high school athletic events and will require coaches to take a course designed to educate them on steroids and supplements.

The legislation was written by state Sen. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, who has also carried bills regarding steroids and ephedra.

She and health professionals argued that muscle-building supplements are unregulated, can be dangerous and can lead teens to illegal steroid use.

"You don't have to look too far to find evidence that dietary supplements can kill,'' she said, adding that Schwarzenegger "has recognized the pivotal role he can play in teaching teen athletes'' to avoid performance-enhancing drugs.

Speier has called the use of the drugs among teens an epidemic. A 2004 University of Michigan survey showed that 3.4 percent of 12th graders had taken steroids, up from 2 percent a decade earlier.

A coach with the powerhouse football program at De La Salle High School in Concord also said supplement and steroid abuse is a growing problem.

"There are a lot of kids going to gyms and getting bad advice,'' said Terry Eidson, De La Salle's athletic director and defensive coordinator for the nationally known football team. Eidson said his school's program closely monitors student-athletes, watching for unnatural weight gain and other signs of drug use.

But trade groups representing the supplement industry had opposed the bill, arguing that the ban was too broad and could unfairly include safe supplements like multivitamins.

The bill "has the potential to diminish the use of dietary supplements by fueling distrust of dietary supplements by consumers and falsely disparaging the industry,'' according to a July letter to Schwarzenegger written by the heads of the American Herbal Products Association, the Council for Responsible Nutrition and the National Nutritional Foods Association.

Schwarzenegger had sounded a similar concern last year, noting in his veto message that "most dietary supplements are safe.'' Speier had attacked that as an advertisement for an industry that supported the governor.

But Thompson said Schwarzenegger rejected the bill last year because it did not provide clear direction to state agencies that would have to compile the list of what was banned. The link in this year's version to a list already compiled by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency satisfied that concern, she said, denying the governor bowed to political pressure in signing the legislation.

"The governor always focuses on what the best public policy is,'' she said.

The new law coincides with decisions made earlier this year by the California Interscholastic Federation, which oversees high school athletics. The group made a one-day coaching education class mandatory, and a spokeswoman said Friday an expanded curriculum on the dangers of performance-enhancing drugs would be included.

Student-athletes are already required to sign a pledge agreeing not to use steroids, and that form will be expanded to include the list of banned supplements, said Emmy Zack of the federation.

News of the signing was greeted happily by a Bay Area family that has become active in promoting regulation of a thriving industry. Brenda Marrero of Vacaville is the mother of Efrain Marrero, a high school football player who began using supplements and then steroids, and then killed himself in 2003. Brenda and her husband Frank believe steroids played a large role in their son's death and have spoken in Sacramento and around the country about the dangers of performance-enhancing drugs.

Friday was "an important day," Brenda Marrero said. "The governor did the right thing today.''

What's banned
The list of prohibited drugs can be found at www.usantidoping.org.

[achtungpv]

Just got back from San Francisco. It was very surreal hearing people on the street talking about Schwarzenegger as a politician.