Adderall Is Baseball's New HGH

Over the past few months both the Commissioner's Office and The MLB Player's Association have been publicaly discussing the current elephant in the room which is casting a cloud over baseball, that being the issue of Human Growth Hormone. HGH was banned in 2005 but today there is still no test system implemented (there are no current urine tests for the drug and blood testing of players has not yet been agreed) and so Bud Selig has to rely on the morals of players to abide by the rules to keep his sport clean. However, it was that type of system that was the ultimate fuel to Selig's Steroid Era™ - relying on player morality to stamp out drugs is as smart as letting Garry Glitter look after your children.





With all the negotiation between the players and the MLB management taking place, the media circus around Mark McGwire in St. Louis and the arrest of a Toronto based physician who was in posession of HGH we have a situation where probably the most important drug related story of the offseason has had precious few column inches. That story is concerning Adderall which was again linked to baseball where the alledged use of it by Jason Kendall, the catcher for the Kansas City Royals, was brought up in court papers this week by his wife Chantel during divorce proceedings.



Adderall is a amphetamine and dextroamphetamine based drug which increases the levels of dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain and is commonly given to people suffering from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). But when given to a baseball player it can increase levels of concentration and alertness while reducing fatigue levels and, as long as you have a prescription, it is totally legal and not on the MLB banned substance list. More interesting is the fact that the Kendall disclosure shed a little more light on the MLB drug testing press release in January, the first time that such information has been released. The report noted that fourteen players tested positive for amphetamines but 106 tested positive for ADHD drugs which is an increase from 28 in 2008. That means 7.6% of players on MLB rosters have been diagnosed with ADHD.

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Dr. Gary Wadler is the chairman of the committee that ascertains what appears on the World Anti-Doping Agency banned-substances list and he was surprised at the figures.

"This is incredible. This is quite spectacular. There seems to be an epidemic of ADD in major league baseball. I've been in private practice for a lot of years. I can count on one hand the number of individuals that have ADD. To say that (7.86%) of major league baseball players have attention deficit disorder is crying out of an explanation. It is to me as an internist so off the map of my own experience."

Over to you, Mr. Selig.