Is Growth Hormone Replacement Illegal in Deficient Adults?

LAS VEGAS, Dec. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Rick Collins, Esq., of the New York law firm of Collins, McDonald & Gann, P.C. (http://www.cmgesq.com/), recently presented a lecture entitled "Legal Update 2005: Prescribing Growth Hormone for Adult Growth Hormone Deficiency" at the 13th Annual International Congress on Anti-Aging Medicine. The presentation clarified a commentary in the October 26, 2005 Journal of the American Medical Association entitled, "Provision or Distribution of Growth Hormone for 'Antiaging': Clinical and Legal Issues."

"The commentary suggests that the replacement of human growth hormone in deficient, aging adults is illegal because of a little-known federal law," said Mr. Collins, a legal authority on anabolic steroids and performance- enhancing hormones. "But the suggestion overlooks the historical context and intent of that law."

Mr. Collins points out that the statute, part of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, was originally written for anabolic steroids. Passed when sports doping had reached national consciousness, it was intended to combat steroid trafficking to athletes. Heightened alarm over drugs in sports, including Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson's steroid positive at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, resulted in the scheduling of anabolic steroids as controlled substances in 1990. Congress chose not to take such a drastic approach to growth hormone after testimony that growth hormone lacks the adverse psychological and physical effects of steroids. Instead, Congress took the lesser approach of inserting growth hormone into the statute that formerly applied to steroids.

"Prescribing growth hormone for non-medical reasons, including performance enhancement or 'anti-aging' in the absence of medical need, is illegal," says Mr. Collins. "But nothing in the statute restricts physicians from treating diseases or other recognized medical conditions for which the use of growth hormone has been authorized by the FDA. Any implication that the statute was intended to prohibit hormone replacement in mature, clinically deficient adults is incorrect."

Collins, McDonald & Gann, P.C., represents individuals and corporations on civil and criminal matters. Contact: info@cmgesq.com

Contact: Richard D. Collins, 516-294-0300, info@cmgesq.com