BONDS - ANOTHER TARGET IN WAR ON DRUGS?

What does the war on drugs have to do with baseball? Ask Barry Bonds,
who was just indicted by federal prosecutors on charges of perjury
and obstruction of justice. Bonds is now facing up to 30 years in
prison if convicted. Anti-doping advocates, including America's
deputy drug czar, are calling for jail time for baseball players who
use steroids, saying that it may be the only effective deterrent for
curbing illegal use.

Let's face it, while Bonds' indictment for lying to a grand jury may
have legal basis, the real underlying reason for this federal
indictment four years after the BALCO investigation is their failure
to get Bonds to admit he had used steroids or any other
performance-enhancing drugs. In that case, a business named Bay Area
Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) was alleged to be distributing
illegal performance-enhancing drugs, and was investigated by several
governmental agencies. This resulted in a huge scandal which
involved many major league baseball players and led to Major League
Baseball initiating penalties for players caught using steroids in 2004.

Now the government is ready to take down the home-run king, along
with the entire sport of baseball, by pushing their personal agenda
of a zero tolerance for drug use. Travis Tygart, head of the U.S.
Anti-Doping Agency, thinks that Major League Baseball's rules
concerning the use of performance-enhancing drugs such as steroids
don't pack enough of a wallop in terms of functioning as a real
deterrent. He is rooting for Bonds to be imprisoned so it sends a
clear message.

Imprisonment of record-breaking hitters like Bonds will not solve
baseball's problem. I know this is true because of the failed war on
drugs. The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the
world. It has 5% of the world's population, but 25% of the world's
prisoners, with more than 2.3 million citizens sitting behind bars -
that's a rate of one in every 136 U.S. residents. About 55% of all
federal and over 20% of all state prisoners are convicted of drug-law
violations, with many of them serving mandatory minimum sentences for
simple possession offenses. And despite all of the incarceration,
drugs and drug use are as prevalent as ever. Are we now going to add
major league players to drug war statistics?

For the sake of argument, what if Bonds did use steroids? Does he
belong in jail? He is not the first athlete to use them and he will
not be the last. The pursuit for athletic superiority through the
use of chemicals has been around a long time. Before steroids were
officially banned in the early 1970's, almost 70% of all Olympic
athletes had used them.

Is it ethical to sentence someone to a lengthy prison term for
putting substances in their own bodies? The premise for prosecuting
the other war with no exit strategy - the drug war - has slowly but
surely infiltrated the public's eye through different vehicles. Now
the feds attempt to bring their message through the sport of
baseball. Bonds joins the ranks of the demonized; ranks that include
medical marijuana users, pain sufferers and their doctors who
prescribe opioid analgesics, and students who are forced to urinate
in cups. All of this in the name of a drug-free America, without
concern for individuals' rights.

At one time baseball was our obsession. It was a sport that walked
hand and hand with the American dream, full of heroes of whom we
could all be proud. Now the federal government, with its crusade
against any and all drug use, has begun a new mission to alter our
way of thinking - no matter what the cost or how many lives are
ruined. I say no to the government trying to destroy our national
past time, and no to imprisoning a baseball king.