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Is THG a Controlled Substance?
Aired October 17, 2003 - 13:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: While the USADA says THG is a designer steroid, the head of Balko (ph), a laboratory near San Francisco, says it is not a controlled substance. Well, who is right? Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta join us now with those details. What's the answer?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Interesting. It's a really hard question to answer. Up until just recently, June, in fact, no one knew about this particular substance, it didn't exist. So if it didn't exist, you didn't really know what it was you were testing for.
Here's what I can tell you. It sounds like it's basically very similar in structure if not exactly similar in structure, to existing anabolic steroids. What we know about those is that those are illegal without a legitimate prescription.
So they're saying a new chemical entity is the term being thrown around here, as opposed to designer steroid. It's sort of six and one-half dozen of another. This didn't exist, they found it, they essentially created it in the laboratory, and now they know how to test for it with a simple urine test. So I think it will come under that same category of anabolic steroids.
PHILLIPS: Steve was talking about the temptation and how athletes think, This is undetected, I'm going to go for it, a few drops under my tongue.
But I've got to ask you and Steve even sort of posed this question, what are the long-term effects? What are the cons to this? Side effects?
GUPTA: This particular substance, people don't know a lot about it, but if it is an anabolic steroid which it sounds to be at this point, we do know about the potential side effects of those medications in men and women.
In men, for example, there are side effects similar to the sort of things that happen when you actually suppress testosterone. The testicles shrink, you may develop breasts, things like that. In women, there are side effects as well. Baldness, as well as excessive body hair.
But I think the more dramatic side effects really in both sexes, are on the heart. It may lead to heart attacks, enlargement of the ventricles. It's also been associated with liver cancer. So again, anabolic steroids have been around since the '30s. Some people use it legitimately because there are people who take these for legitimate medical reason.
PHILLIPS: The THG? This actual one?
GUPTA: Not this one, but anabolic steroids as a general class of drugs.
It's kid if like medical tinkering. There are always these different steroid. If you take one hydrogen molecule, move it to a different place, it's a different drug. Maybe undetectable, didn't exist before you did that. But it's still an anabolic steroid.
I think this is where the debate gets interesting. How do you ban something that didn't really exist?
PHILLIPS: Interesting. All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you.
GUPTA: Good to see you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 17, 2003 - 13:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: While the USADA says THG is a designer steroid, the head of Balko (ph), a laboratory near San Francisco, says it is not a controlled substance. Well, who is right? Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta join us now with those details. What's the answer?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Interesting. It's a really hard question to answer. Up until just recently, June, in fact, no one knew about this particular substance, it didn't exist. So if it didn't exist, you didn't really know what it was you were testing for.
Here's what I can tell you. It sounds like it's basically very similar in structure if not exactly similar in structure, to existing anabolic steroids. What we know about those is that those are illegal without a legitimate prescription.
So they're saying a new chemical entity is the term being thrown around here, as opposed to designer steroid. It's sort of six and one-half dozen of another. This didn't exist, they found it, they essentially created it in the laboratory, and now they know how to test for it with a simple urine test. So I think it will come under that same category of anabolic steroids.
PHILLIPS: Steve was talking about the temptation and how athletes think, This is undetected, I'm going to go for it, a few drops under my tongue.
But I've got to ask you and Steve even sort of posed this question, what are the long-term effects? What are the cons to this? Side effects?
GUPTA: This particular substance, people don't know a lot about it, but if it is an anabolic steroid which it sounds to be at this point, we do know about the potential side effects of those medications in men and women.
In men, for example, there are side effects similar to the sort of things that happen when you actually suppress testosterone. The testicles shrink, you may develop breasts, things like that. In women, there are side effects as well. Baldness, as well as excessive body hair.
But I think the more dramatic side effects really in both sexes, are on the heart. It may lead to heart attacks, enlargement of the ventricles. It's also been associated with liver cancer. So again, anabolic steroids have been around since the '30s. Some people use it legitimately because there are people who take these for legitimate medical reason.
PHILLIPS: The THG? This actual one?
GUPTA: Not this one, but anabolic steroids as a general class of drugs.
It's kid if like medical tinkering. There are always these different steroid. If you take one hydrogen molecule, move it to a different place, it's a different drug. Maybe undetectable, didn't exist before you did that. But it's still an anabolic steroid.
I think this is where the debate gets interesting. How do you ban something that didn't really exist?
PHILLIPS: Interesting. All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you.
GUPTA: Good to see you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
