Good morning ladies and gentlemen. I appreciate you all coming here to be with us.

For more than two decades, the use of anabolic steroids by professional athletes has been widely reported. Indictments of a San Francisco-area nutritional supplements lab of federal steroid-distribution charges have brought even more attention to the use of steroids. Recently, accusations of world class track and baseball athletes using steroids have hit the news. But, steroid use often begins before athletes achieve international recognition.

Today's hearing will focus on the availability of illegal steroids, and the pressures young athletes face to use steroids in an attempt to improve themselves. Anabolic steroids are easily purchased over the Internet as well as from users who sell and distribute steroids in gyms. The ease to which anybody, including young people, can acquire these drugs, coupled with the high percentage that the purchased steroids are counterfeit, heightens the severe health risks that threaten the user.

Recent studies have shown that the use of illegal steroids has sky rocketed among high school and college age athletes. Despite the widely publicized dangers of anabolic steroid abuse, it's estimated that as many as 5 million people annually, including 175,000 high school girls and 350,000 high-school age boys, may be abusing these drugs to improve athletic performance, appearance and self-image. In fact, those same studies have shown that some users start even younger, first using steroids while they are in middle school.

These children are taking these drugs to gain immediate enhancement of athletic performance. What has been most troubling to me is that some coaches, the very people we entrust to teach fair sportsmanship to our children and care for their well-being, are promoting the use of steroids and steroid precursors. The mind set that "winning comes before all else," says to our kids that they should "do whatever it takes" to get bigger, stronger and faster. Too often, young athletes see steroid use as the only way to comply with the coach's demands. Winning at all costs places too great of a cost on the health of our children and undermines the element of fairness we expect in any sporting competition.

When I started looking at this problem, I was amazed at just how easy it is to get this poison. My staff found several web sites where steroids and precursors can be purchased on-line. In fact, my staff found illegal steroids available on E-Bay! And if that's not bad enough, young athletes can buy the needles used to inject the illegal steroids directly into their bodies on E-Bay. Example 1 shows one of these sales on E-Bay, where they advertise one inch needles to inject, and I quote, "DECA [DECK-a], DBOL [DEE-ball], TEST" – all terms for illegal steroids. This web page also says that these needles, and I quote, "are a must for those with gear". "GEAR" is a common code word for steroids.

A second example (Example 2), also taken from E-Bay, shows just how easy it is to buy illegal steroids. Notice the category at the top of the poster that the drugs are listed under - "HEALTH & BEAUTY". Quite ironic, actually. We'll hear from one witness, Dr. Catlin, a leading expert on steroids, about the clear dangers to the health of those who take these illegal drugs. We'll also, hear from Don Hooton, whose son Taylor committed suicide as a result of abusing illegal steroids. What beauty is there in that?

Again, Example 2 offers the illegal steroid DBOL [D- ball], or diannabol[die-ANN-a-ball] to any willing bidder. This fella says that the D-ball pills he's selling are, and I quote, "the real deal" and that he "used them personally and they are awesome". A personal endorsement – and free shipping to boot!

Example 3 shows how easy it is to get injectable steroids on the Internet. This seller has 10 ampules[AMP-u-alls] of Sustanon[SUSS-ta-non], and 10 ampules[AMP-U-ALLS] of decaduraboilon[deck-a-durr-OB-a-lynn], that's referred to as DECA. This seller tries to pretend he doesn't know what these drugs will be used for when he say, and I quote, "for vet use only". What veterinarian would buy his medications on E-Bay?

Injectable steroids are particularly dangerous, to young abusers who don't know how use injection needles correctly. Infections, nerve damage and even deadly disease can occur from the use of needles. Injecting steroids directly into a vein or artery can cause serious health risks. Needles have even been known to break off in the body during injections.

Others use clever tricks to hide their criminal intent. In Example 4 this guy claims to be selling a "PICTURE of D-BALL". Just a picture. Included in the description, he tells the buyer the lot number and the expiration date of the "picture". Indeed, he says the "Picture" comes in a sealed container, with free priority mail! By the way, the "Picture" sold for $60.00.

In Example 5 we see a seller who advertises a list of steroid distributors that he got from "Steroidworld.com". The seller says he has had "100% success rate" with the list, and that the sellers on the list will, and I quote, "use labels which will hide the package's contents".

So its clear that these products are out there, and that they are readily available. But to make matters worse, counterfeit steroids are also being sold widely. These fake drugs are very convincing in appearance. In front of us, you can see several examples of high quality counterfeit steroids. [POINT TO THE TABLE WITH THE STEROID BOXES AND BOTTLES IN FRONT]. Notice the quality of the packaging, labeling, and inserts that are on the table. These steroids are fake, but convincing. We will hear more about this today from a former steroid distributor and user, who will testify that 95% of the steroids on the market are not genuine. Fake steroids have been known to have mixtures of cooking oil and even MOTOR OIL in them. Image a high school student injecting motor oil into his or her body!

 I hope that today's witnesses will help us all understand the problem here, as well as some of the efforts being made to confront this menace. In addition to the testimony that we will hear today, we have also received written testimony from several different groups, which, if there is no objection, I would like to include in the record.

Senator Biden, if you would like to make an opening statement at this time please do so, and then I will introduce our first panel.