New Law Lets U.S. DEA Crack Down on Steroid Supplement Spiking

* Updated 12/19/2014 11 AM PST

Congress passed a new bill this month that empowers the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to more quickly classify designer anabolic steroids as controlled substances and, in turn, to go after companies illegally spiking dietary supplements with these banned substances.

The Designer Anabolic Steroid Control Act (DASCA) of 2014 (H.R. 4771) passed the Senate on December 11, 2014, and the House of Representatives on September 15, 2014. It’s now expected that President Obama will sign the bill into law. * Update: President Obama signed this bill on December 18, 2014.

Dietary supplement industry representatives at large celebrated DASCA’s passage by Congress. “Responsible dietary supplement industry stakeholders have consistently supported congressional and regulatory efforts to enact and enforce laws that help eliminate illegal products that masquerade as dietary supplements, and to prosecute the criminals who manufacture and sell them,” said Michael McGuffin, president of the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA; Silver Spring, MD), in a press release.

Industry association the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN; Washington, DC) pointed out that DASCA also gives DEA the power to “address products that are ‘substantially similar’ to anabolic steroids and that have been illegally marketed to promote muscle growth.”

“DASCA will allow DEA to quickly crack down on criminals creating new anabolic substances that closely resemble red-flagged counterparts listed, but altered minimally with the intent of evading enforcement,” it added.

Pointing out that DASCA fortunately passed in the last hours of this congressional session following much lobbying by industry groups, Loren Israelsen, president of the United Natural Products Alliance (UNPA; Salt Lake City, UT), said, “This bill, years in the making, addresses and should resolve the long-term problem of illegal steroid products masquerading as dietary supplements in the marketplace.” Israelsen said that, off the bat, DASCA empowers DEA to remove approximately two dozen designer steroids from the market.

Jennifer Grebow
Editor-in-Chief
Nutritional Outlook magazine jennifer.grebow@ubm.com

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