NEW YORK (AP) -Changes made Friday to baseball’s joint drug agreement:
-The management-union Health Policy Advisory Committee is disbanded and HPAC’s responsibilities over performance-enhancing drugs are given largely to the Independent Program Administrator. Decisions on ordering reasonable-cause testing will made jointly by management and the players’ association, with the matter going to an arbitrator if they disagree. Supervision over drugs of abuse is transferred from HPAC to a new management-union entity called the Treatment Board.
-An additional 600 tests will be conducted annually, raising the total to 3,600. Up to 375 tests may be conducted over the next three offseasons, up from 60 per offseason. Testing will include the top 200 prospects in each year’s amateur draft. Players who test positive remain eligible for selection. Players who refuse to test cannot be selected.
-Players in the Mitchell Report won’t be disciplined. Players will join MLB efforts designed to educate youth and their parents regarding the dangers of performance-enhancing substances. The union will contribute $200,000 to an antidrug charitable, educational or research organization.
-The IPA will issue an annual report summarizing the number of tests administered, the number of positive tests resulting in discipline, the substances involved in the positives, the number of Therapeutic Use Exemptions granted by category of ailment and the number of non-analytical positives. Test results – but not urine samples – will be maintained for two years.
-An automatic stay for an initial suspension is expanded to players disciplined for conduct unrelated to a positive test.
-The banned list is expanded to include insulin-like growth factor, gonadotropins, aromatase inhibitors, selective estrogen receptor modulators and antiestrogens, including clomid.
-In future investigations, allegations of player misconduct will not be disclosed publicly by the commissioner’s office unless discipline is imposed. A player will be provided a description of evidence and allegations against him before any investigatory interview.
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