Everything regarding steroids and myriad other compounds, related or unrelated, prohibited or permissable, are so clearly and cavalierly defined with an astonishing degree of certainty on these threads, while J.D. attorneys, specializing in the subject [and working both sides of the street] continue to enunciate the endless nuances, applications, state and federal conflicts and enforcement/penalty variations.
Example:
Steroid Law - Extended Article Listing
"Far more sweeping federal legislation was close behind. On October 22, 2004, President Bush signed into law the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004, scheduled to take effect 90 days later [Public Law No: 108-358; 118 Stat. 1661 (2004)]. Ratified by the U.S. Congress earlier in the month, the bill expanded the steroid law that had been passed in 1990. The new law also provides $15 million for educational programs for children about the dangers of anabolic steroids, and directed the U.S. Sentencing Commission to consider revising federal guidelines to increase the penalties for steroid possession and distribution.
The law, which took effect as of January 20th, 2005, adds 26 new steroid compounds (five of which are further described by specific chemical isomers) to the previous list of substances that are legally defined as �anabolic steroids� and classified as Schedule III controlled substances. Mere possession of any of these products is now a basis for arrest and prosecution as a federal drug criminal. The new compounds are androstanediol; androstanedione; androstenediol; androstenedione; bolasterone; calusterone; *1-dihydrotestosterone (a.k.a. �1-testosterone�); furazabol; 13b-ethyl-17a-hydroxygon-4-en-3-one; 4-hydroxytestosterone; 4-hydroxy-19-nortestosterone; mestanolone; 17a-methyl-3b,17b-dihydroxy-5a-androstane; 17a-methyl-3a,17b-dihydroxy-5a-androstane; 17a-methyl-3b,17b-dihydroxyandrost-4-ene; 17a-methyl-4-hydroxynandrolone; methyldienolone; methyltrienolone; 17a-methyl-*1-dihydrotestosterone (a.k.a. �17-a-methyl-1-testosterone�); norandrostenediol; norandrostenedione; norbolethone; norclostebol; normethandrolone; stenbolone; and tetrahydrogestrinone.
...
"The law also changes the general requisite elements of an anabolic steroid. The �promotes muscle growth� language that precedes the list of compounds [see Legal Muscle for an analysis of the 1990 law] is now removed from the statute. Strangely, an anabolic steroid, under the new law, need not be anabolic.
.... then follows considerations of the direct powers of the Attorney General to interpret vs. the powers of states' attorneys-general ...
... and we are treated to flaws in the 1990 law and revisitation of some suspect supplements ... now OK:
"After a protracted battle on the issue among members of Congress, the law permits the continued sale of DHEA as a dietary supplement by adding it to the list of other excluded hormonal substances (estrogens, progestins, and corticosteroids). The law also fixes some of the mistakes and poor draftsmanship of the 1990 law that I pointed out in the original Legal Muscle."
So long as the legal system and the states' rights turf battles prevail, the clock, for me can start only after the new law went into effect. That would be mid-January, 2005 [which happens to open a calendar year in which Barry Bonds was out for surgery].
Anybody caught after all those refinements and redefinitions is a fool or an arrogant ass, deserving of having the book thrown at him, especially post the Mitchell Report.