As if Congress investigating baseball doping were not enough of a waste, a new bill circulating on Capital Hill aims to regulate drug use in horse racing. The proposed law would create a mechanism and structure to control the use of drugs in horses, not people. In baseball, at least, the good but unconstitutional intention was to minimize the impact of players using performance enhancing drugs and influencing children. The Sport of Kings, however, is rarely watched by children though (or kings for that matter- most fans at American racetracks look like the checkout line at the dollar store- I know, I am one of them). And for the few precious snowflakes who do happen to cast their eyes upon the turf, it seems reasonable that none of them would be inspired to inject Lasik or some other equine pharmaceutical because their favorite gelding closed so well in the last furlong.
Representatives Udall and Whitfield find their justification for the federal government regulating what horse trainers inject into their animals up with in the Interstate Horseracing Act of 1978, which of course grounds itself constitutionally in that great reservoir of all federal powers, the Interstate Commerce Clause.
And once again an industry, knowing that adherence to the Constitution is not the driving force in Washington, is discussing capitulating to Congress rather than fighting legislation which is harmful to their business. Just as tobacco, food, and a host of other industries have accepted voluntary guidelines then self-regulation then legal proscriptions, the horse racing industry appears to be doing the same.
The debate over the propriety of using drugs to increase the performance of thoroughbreds has no place in Washington, other than a quick admission that the federal government's authority to regulate does not extend into this arena.
Sensible libertarian views on nearly everything- except foreign affairs.