Advisor to U.S. Sentencing Commission Recommendations Regarding AAS sentencing

[Millard Baker]

An advisor to the U.S. Sentencing Commission is apparently recommending closing the disparity between sentencing for "cocaine" convictions and "steroid" convictions.

Criminal defense attorney Lyle Yurko attributes the disparity to steroids being a white thing. That is, bodybuilders who sell/use AAS tend to be white males whereas cocaine dealers tend to be black!!

"If these body builders who tend to be largely white males were black and on the street corners selling steroids, would the penalties be this low?"

Lawyer challenges disparity between crack, steroids penalties


06:05 PM EST on Thursday, March 17, 2005

By STUART WATSON / 6NEWS Investigators

As some of baseball's biggest hitters testified before Congress on Thursday, some attorneys believe lawmakers should consider the sentencing disparity between steroids and crack.



Crack dealers can go to federal prison for 15 to 20 years on a first offense, but a doctor who illegally prescribes steroids faces a considerably less severe penalty, said criminal defense attorney Lyle Yurko.



"If you sell 5,000 pills you're looking at less than six months," said Yurko, who advises the U.S. Sentencing Commission.



Congress groups drugs into schedules - schedule one being the most dangerous and five the least. Cocaine is a schedule two drug, while steroids are a schedule three, but the penalties for crack cocaine are many times harsher.



"If these body builders who tend to be largely white males were black and on the street corners selling steroids, would the penalties be this low?" Yurko said.



The debate over steroids is not hypothetical in a Carolina case. South Carolina law enforcement and agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency raided the office of Columbia doctor James Shortt in September. The agents seized seisen, a human growth hormone, and testosterone, an anabolic steroid."



The same investigators that raided Shortt's office had subpoenaed the Carolina Panthers for contact information for certain unnamed players, a spokesperson for the team confirmed this week. The spokesperson said the players are witnesses, not targets of the investigation.



Online at: http://www.wcnc.com/news/topstories/stories/031705ccjrwcncsteroids.14a33c152.html

[Joffa]

These people's ignorance is pissing me off Will things ever get better? They're trying to compare us to cocaine dealers now? Coke users are destroying their bodies; we can be arrested and fined for trying to improve ours? The more and more I read about this in the media now, the more I get pissed off. Now Canseco and MLB is brining more attention to this issue...as if it didn't have any heat all ready. Lemme guess what's going to happen, since Congress doesn't trust MLB to clean itself up, they conveniently use that as an excuse to up the penalty for AAS for the rest of the entire country. Nice politics... Sorry for the rant, just been getting more and more pissed off about all this.... Can we please get a bodybuilder on the Senate? LOL

~Joffa

[big roid]

They need to leave my Panthers alone!!

[GeaR_and_SauCe]

It will never happen. People aren't stupid. There is no corilation between illegal steroid dealing and violence nor is there a corilation between steroid use and crime. Its amazing that someone who could be smart enough to finish law school and raise the ranks isn't smart enough to realize this. When the statistics come out they will see how much time they are wasting. Would tougher steroid sentences mean less rapes, robberies, murders, or assults? If you can say yes to any of those then I will stand corrected. But, I doubt you can....

You know there we are headed into a time soon where we must get out of the dark and be heard. We make a lot more sense than these morons and when we go public they just might realize how stupid it is. Than again, look at the penalties involved with marijuana possesion and distribution. I guess they like to make silly and pointless arguements for causes that are even more irrelevant....

[Bob Smith]

Originally Posted by GeaR_and_SauCe

There is no corilation between illegal steroid dealing and violence nor is there a corilation between steroid use and crime.

There is also no correlation between steroid use and spelling, either.

Considering that AAS doesnt even meet the criteria for Schedule III drugs, its even more assinine that they are wanting to raise the penalties for their use/possession.

[J DUB]

True dat, I guess they are free to make exceptions to the Sch III criteria as they see fit . This is really a severe case of comparing apples and oranges...there is no comparison between the effects of anabolic steroids and crack cocaine.

[Fast Twitch]

wow, the ignorance of some people, it really bothers me when simple minded publicity seeking morons make statements like this... the black community never held this sentimate, this is one publicity seeking lawyer trying to get his name in the headlines so he can increase the size of his wallet in wich also he has his race card. he is preying on hi own community by playing the race card, and frankley it disgusts me...this fool fails to realize that streoids unlike cocaine are widly prescribed and the AMA (american medical association) was against even making sterods illegal, cocaine is in fact in some cancer medication, but this is rarely prescribed, only to the dying, i only know this because my grandfather had it...
in fact the USA does actually grow process and sell cocaine, marijuana, opium (obviously) the reason that these are so tightly controlled is because of the pharm market, if this("illegal drugs" in general) was ever legalized the large corporate pharm companies that use these USA grown (MADE IN THE USA) substances the USA economy would loose billions a year because the underground market would become public and prices would become competitive... ranted about the rediculous media, and how they actually are the only reason anyone cares about this, the other day...
That is right the USA media is the latest religion and it is robbing us of our humanity and augmenting the decomposition of the true species being

loving-kindness/FT