[fredr123]

Originally Posted by troutman

This is not true - it was against MLB rules (as Mitchell describes in the report) and it was always illegal in the US to possess steroids without a prescription.

No player is going to sue - they did it.

Here's the quote:

Originally Posted by Alan Milstein from Sports Law Blog

First, despite what Mitchell says, baseball had no policy or regulation expressly banning steroids until September 2002, did not have testing with penalties until 2004 and did not ban HGH until 2005. Should Mark McGwire, for example, be vilified for taking androstenedione, a supplement that produced testosterone, when it could have been bought at the time over the counter by anyone and, of course, did not violate MLB rules?

Here's what Mitchell wrote:

Originally Posted by Mithcell Report at page 18

There is a widespread misconception that the use of steroids and other
performance enhancing substances, such as human growth hormone, was not prohibited in Major League Baseball before the inclusion of the joint drug program in the 2002 Basic Agreement. In fact, as early as 1991 baseball’s drug policy expressly prohibited the use of “all illegal drugs and controlled substances, including steroids or prescription drugs for which the individual … does not have a prescription.”53 Even before then, however, the use of any prescription drug without a valid prescription was prohibited in baseball, and even earlier under federal law. In 1971, baseball’s drug policy required compliance with federal, state, and local drug laws and directed baseball’s athletic trainers that anabolic steroids should only be provided to players under a physician’s guidance.54

Illegal drugs, including steroids, may have been against MLB's drug policies long before 2002. However, possession or use of HGH was not. That didn't attract the attention of MLB until the media made a big deal about a jar of it in Mark McGwire's locker in 1998 (Mitchell Report at page 22).

Originally Posted by Mitchell Report at page 20

In addition, the unlawful distribution of human growth hormone was classified as a felony punishable by up to five years imprisonment (or up to ten years imprisonment for distribution to individuals under the age of 18). Those penalties also applied to distribution of human growth hormone for a use other than treatment of a disease or as otherwise expressly approved by the Food and Drug Administration.63 Human growth hormone has never been approved by the FDA for cosmetic, anti-aging, or athletic performance purposes.64 Human growth hormone was not included with steroids as a Schedule III controlled substance, however, meaning that under current federal law, there is no criminal penalty for simple possession of HGH.65 Several states have regulated human growth hormone as a controlled substance, however, under their own versions of the Controlled Substances Act.66

Subsequently, MLB commissioned a study into HGH and other legal steroid precursors. They weren't banned by MLB until much later.

My point? At least in the case of McGwire's use of HGH prior to MLB officially banning the substance, he wasn't doing anything against the law or against MLB rules. This says nothing, of course, about the dozens of other players named in the Report.