Children Saved from HGH Thieves

The uproar created by the Magic Foundation has worked.  The bill by those two senatorial clowns, Charles Schumer D-NY and Chuck Grassley R- Iowa.  They had to drop the idea of making human growth hormone a Schedule III drug because it would have made it very difficult for patients with a legitimate medical.  Particularly families with children on an expensive therapy program would have experienced greater hassles and expense.

This from USA Today:
     
“We’ve ran into some things that we didn’t anticipate. We were enlightened by the parents whose children legitimately need HGH,” Grassley told USA TODAY on Tuesday. “Making it (a more tightly controlled substance) would have created a lot of red tape for them.”

That is Congressional speak for:

“We did not bother to research the bill because it would have gotten in the way of the news cycle and publicity created by Roger Clemens’ testimony.  We wanted to get our share!”

I call them clowns because even after all this uproar, their lack of responsible research continues to highlight the magnitude of their incompetence.

This also from USA Today: 

However, the new draft of the bill includes language that would prohibit use of HGH “for athletic performance, bodybuilding, or anti-aging” purposes, according to Beth Pellett Levine, a spokeswoman for Grassley. Other than requiring a prescription, there currently is no list of approved or unapproved uses for HGH, which can aid recovery and fuel muscle growth.

Once again they have not bothered to do very much research.  The FDA has a very tight set of rules regarding prescribing human growth hormone.

From a recent FDA memorandum:
               Section 303(e) (1) of the FDCA, 21 U.S.C.   333(e) (1),
               prohibits knowingly distributing, or possessing with the
               intent to distribute, HGH for any use in humans other than
               the treatment of a disease or other recognized medical
               condition, where such use has been authorized by the
               Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) under section
               505 of the FDCA (21 U.S.C.   355) and pursuant to the order
               of a physician.  The Secretary of HHS has not authorized,
               for example, any HGH use for anti-aging, bodybuilding, or
               athletic enhancement.  Thus, distributing, or possessing
               with the intent to distribute, HGH for these uses or any
               other unapproved use violates section 303(e) (1) of the
               FDCA.  A violation of section 303(e)(1) carries up to 5
               years imprisonment and fines and, if the offense involves an
               individual under the age of 18 years of age, up to 10 years
               imprisonment and fines.

I found the memorandum in 30 seconds.  Why couldn’t America’s best and brightest find it in 3 months? 

That’s right, they work for Apple and Google not Congress.

The FDA has put a decent amount of effort into enforcing these rules including sting operations sending undercover operatives into doctor’s offices.  There have been prosecutions of doctor’s who appeared to be writing prescriptions without performing the proper tests.

Why do we need a new law?  Why do we need to make simple possession a crime? HGH has not been clearly shown to be a danger to anyone who uses it properly.  The small group of people who abuse it will find something else to abuse.

How about focusing the energy and resources on real problems like crystal meth and cocaine?

Maybe the FDA could also pay closer attention to the drugs that are being used for the official authorized reason but are killing people with the side effects.

The whole clown thing is funny until you stop and think that these are two of the people supposedly running the country.  Is this an example of the quality of background work they do on all legislation?  Probably.

Maybe now that these bozos have gotten another round of publicity, they will noisily slide over to a new issue and the bill will quietly die. 

The issue has already been drifting out of the light.  We had to use USA Today as a reference because nobody else was paying attention.

Another thought.  Before spending our tax dollars on duplicate legislation, why not fund a definitive study on what are the actual benefits of human growth hormone.  With so many people supposedly using this expensive drug voluntarily, there would be no shortage of volunteers willing to use hgh for free.

The whole study could probably be done with less money than was spent on Henry Waxman’s baseball hearings.