Not sure if you're referring to US legislation or the MLB ban.
Assuming you're referring to the US legislation in the early 90's, the DEA and National Institute of Health were AGAINST steroids being made illegal. There has NEVER been a conclusive study linking steroid use to death or serious side effects when used properly.

Did anyone else think her sentencing was a little harsh? I mean, I understand she is a role model and should face consequences, but they've already pulled her medals, she lost her endorsement money (and any hope of future employment) and is humiliated. What does 6 months in jail accomplish? (while Barry Bonds walks free and keeps his records... :mad:) http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...2_jones12.html

You are making it appear like Barry Bonds was tried and convicted of something and is still free. He hasn't failed a drug test or been found guilty of anything in a court of law. Although I think he most certainly took something, whether it be HGH or the clear or cream...me convicting him in my own court of opinion doesn't really mean jack. Same goes for everyone else.

Marion Jones admitted her guilt after she had already lied to a grand jury/federal agents about her involvement in BALCO/steroids....hence the perjury conviction. She also had the added check-fraud charges tacked on to her sentence, which could have been a pretty big deal had she received more money than the 25,000$ that she tried to have put in her account.. I think getting 6 months in jail for both is fairly lenient.

Furthermore, attempting to strip Barry Bonds of his records is ludicrous. The guy is a piece of shit and a terrible human being......but he is not even close to the first professional baseball player to achieve lofty stats due in part to bending the rules. There are Hall of Famers who may have cheated for their entire careers. Gaylord Perry comes to mind (throwing spitballs and doctoring baseballs is cheating, and he was better than anyone at it).

Cheating on a grand scale has occurred in every major era and decade in baseball. Corking bats, using amphetamines, doctoring baseballs...taking steroids. All are cheating. Bonds is nothing more than a product of his environment molded out of the greed of everyone associated with MLB the last 20 or so years: owners, executives, and players.

and it gets better:

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/WinterC...4128750&page=1

I caught a little of the actual House proceedings this morning as I got out of the shower - what a joke.

This is really an excuse for the members of the House committee to proselytize from the podium, get air time, rant and rave to a camera and then peddle themselves as "difference makers" during their next reelection campaign. Baseball's testing program is on par or superior to any league out there, and its penalties are more severe - football, by contrast, has a legitimate drug problem, with stars caught every year and a testing program that is notoriously full of holes and pre-test warnings to star players. I witnessed the committee chair first, then the minority leader, stand up and deliver a ridiculous sermon on the dangers of drugs, while giving uncited and laughably uninformed "statistics" on drug use and the connection between athletics and use of performance-enhancing substances. Never mind that most of these users are not baseball players - football has, by far, the more serious problem - or that the true 'enablers' are generally not pro athletes, but rather the parents who fund the purchases, or the coaches who look the other way in search of more and better wins, or etc.

The finger-wagging on the part of Congress in this situation is laughable at best, and insidiously dangerous at worst. Announcing the baseball situation as a "problem" while focusing on the stars and not the majority of users (who are, in general, failed scrubs or the injured), all the while making innuendo that the problem is worse than the testing indicates because of the specter of HGH (which has never been shown to actually increase muscle mass or athletic performance), really gives children the actual license and rationale for using performance-enhancing substances. It's a total joke.

We should all be ashamed, as taxpayers, that our money and time is being wasted on such an inane, onanistic exercise as this. How silly.

I agree.

"She too fine to go to jail..." -Unknown

LOL. She wasn't too fine to be married to that huge dude.

She won't be the only pretty woman in prison. They will do what female inmates do, I guess. Do each other's hair or whatever. ;)