Former drug czar tells baseball to follow Olympic
drug-testing model
The Associated Press
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WASHINGTON (AP) -
Former White House drug czar Barry McCaffrey is urging Major League Baseball to
adopt Olympic standards for drug testing and punishment.
"You
cannot have the chickens guarding the coop. Baseball always has and still
does," McCaffrey said Monday. "Baseball and all professional sports
need to adopt the same anti-drug principles we pressed for in the Olympics -
outside year-round random testing with accountability, openness and
independence."
Rep.
Tom Davis, whose House Government Reform Committee held last week's hearing on
steroids in baseball, and Sen. John McCain said Sunday that if baseball doesn't
change its drug policy, Congress could call in the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to
govern the sport's testing. The agency oversees drug testing and discipline for
McCaffrey,
President Clinton's top anti-drug adviser, worked with USADA, the World
Anti-Doping Agency and the International Olympic Committee to put together the
Olympic drug-testing program.
The
WADA code, followed by most Olympic sports, calls for a two-year ban for a
first positive test and a lifetime ban for a second, unless there are
mitigating circumstances.
Baseball's
drug policy has a 10-day suspension for a first failed test. The original draft
of the new agreement also included the possibility of fines instead of bans,
but players and owners agreed to drop that provision after criticism from
lawmakers last week.
"The
penalties must also parallel the seriousness of those in the Olympics, if
professional sports are to be credible," McCaffrey said. "Baseball
has only done what it perceives is the bare minimum to escape public
condemnation. In fact, they have actually only increased the ridicule against
themselves by their proposal."
McCaffrey
also called on baseball to add testing for amphetamines, Human Growth Hormone
and EPO, or erythropoietin, an endurance-boosting drug.