In October 2002, I was honored to represent the NCAA at a U.S. Senate hearing about the substance ephedrine. Ephedrine is an NCAA-banned stimulant found in many over-the-counter supplement products marketed to athletes. As part of my testimony, I described to the subcommittee the significant progress NCAA schools have made in deterring ephedrine use by college athletes. I also explained that the current federal laws allowing widespread marketing and distribution of ephedrine products make ephedrine deterrence difficult.

The most moving part of the hearing was the testimony of Kevin and Debbie Riggins. They are the parents of Sean Riggins, a high-school football player in Illinois who died after consuming ephedrine. After Sean's death, school officials and parents discovered that many of the football players were taking ephedrine. The Riggins' testimony can be found at http://www.senate.gov/~gov_
affairs/100802riggins.htm. It would be a good read for any college athlete.

A representative from Metabolife spoke at the hearing, too. Metabolife manufactures weight-loss products that contain ephedrine. His testimony was predictable in that it placed blame on the users of ephedrine products and not on the products themselves. Further, he suggested that if the federal government restricts sales of ephedrine (a move the supplement industry spends significant resources to prevent), it should do so only for those under the age of 18.

A month after the Washington hearing, the Council for Responsible Nutrition (a trade association for supplement manufacturers) issued "Guidelines for Young Athletes on Responsible Use of Sports Nutrition Supplements." The guidelines can be found at www.crnusa.org.

Those guidelines use an easy-to-understand format -- green light, yellow light, red light -- to explain what supplements may be used (green), may be used with caution (yellow), or should not be used by athletes younger than 18 (red). The guidelines correctly state that "red light" supplements such as androstenedione and ephedrine should not be used by athletes because they are banned. I thoroughly reviewed the guidelines and frankly, there's not much in the document I disagree with.

The presence of an industry representative at October's Senate hearing and the release of guidelines by an industry trade association a month later indicates that the supplement industry is beginning to feel the pressure of increasing public support for federal and/or state regulation of the supplement industry. However, let's not be fooled into supporting the industry's position that the wide availability of supplements is an issue that affects only people 18 or under. There is nothing that magically happens physiologically on one's 18th birthday that makes one immune from the harmful effects of these substances. In fact, we have every reason to believe that the use of ephedrine, androstenedione and other performance-enhancing supplements is as dangerous for the college athlete as it is for under-age athletes.

Because no immediate relief to the wide availability of ephedrine is near, I urge NCAA schools to continue educational and testing programs to help athletes avoid ephedrine. Educational programs should stress that ephedrine combined with heat and exercise is a dangerous mixture.

Further, it is time that we discontinued referring to ephedrine as a "dietary supplement." I understand the desire or need to supplement one's diet with essential vitamins and minerals, or to replenish water and electrolytes lost during exercise. However, none of your athletes is experiencing "ephedrine deficiency."

Frank D. Uryasz is the president of The National Center for Drug Free Sport.