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Comment by TruthElixirX | Hacker News Reader

Fun fact:

When anabolic steroids were banned by congress in the U.S., the DEA, AMA, NIDA, and FDA were all against the ban saying they were harmless [1], and they mostly are, especially if taken with doctor supervision.

Now they have been pushed underground (unless you have the money to doctor shop) and you get all sorts of bro science around them which can be a real problem.

Thank science the U.S. government is saving us from ourselves.

[1]http://www.steroid.com/The-Steroid-Control-Act.php

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Can we get a citation on this that looks more like a neutral third party?

Here's wiki page with citations in it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anabolic_steroid#United_States

"During deliberations, the American Medical Association (AMA), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as well as the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) all opposed listing anabolic steroids as controlled substances, citing the fact that use of these hormones does not lead to the physical or psychological dependence required for such scheduling under the Controlled Substance Act. Nevertheless, anabolic steroids were added to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act in the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 1990."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anabolic_steroid

Chasing down the references in that paragraph reveals nothing about the FDA, AMA, DEA or NIDA's opinion on the Anabolic Steroid Control Act (1990). The only citation leads to the THOMAS page for the act[0] which only contains the text of the act, and not any of the discussion surrounding it.

Remember that Wikipedia isn't a primary (or even secondary) source and shouldn't be used as one!

[0] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d101:H.R.4658:

You'd need to look at the Congressional Record, not the Acts. So far as I can make out, the online Record only goes back to the 104th Congress. The Anabolic Steroid Control Act (1990) was passed by the 101st Congress.

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