In Ala-Godbless-bama, they like to say that anything you could want can be found in this state.

That slogan obviously holds some truth on a recent Alabaster morning, as Jeff Vreeland and Matt Pair sit in the office of Thompson High School principal Ronald Griggs, who wants to know how these two young men came across this -- what do you call it? -- Androstenedione, these pills they take in class before working out.

STUFF OF DREAMS
1200k AVI QuickTime Supplement company executive Joe Young explains what Andro can do for an athlete.

The full truth, though, is that the 16-year-old football players could have purchased their testosterone-boosting supplements just about anywhere in the country. General Nutrition Centers, the largest distributors of dietary supplements and ergogenic aids, never sold Andro at its company stores and ordered its franchises in June to take it off their shelves because of its health concerns, but Andro remains available in most other stores.

Some supplement manufacturers say that people under 18 should not use the product, but many of the bottles offer no such advice on their labels. And there is nothing that legally prevents the sale of Andro to minors.

The local Ultimate Nutrition outlet thanks nearby high school players for their patronage. About a dozen players in Friday night's bash between rivals Thompson and Pelham are regular customers, helping push the stores sales of Andro to about $4,000 a month since word got out that Mark McGwire uses the substance.

"Most people just are like, 'Hey, this looks like it works' and not really worried about the side effects," said Billy Payne, a former college football player who manages the small, spartan store in a plaza along the highway that links the two towns. "I guess they figure that if it's on the market, it's fairly safe."

A reasonable assumption, to be sure.

OUTSIDE THE LINES SERIES

As an online companion to the "Outside the Lines" television show that aired on Nov. 10, ESPN.com explored the controversy over Androstenedione, the muscle-building pills Mark McGwire popularized while setting the home run record. To find out about the use of the substance by ordinary athletes, ESPN.com Senior Writer Tom Farrey went to Alabaster, Ala., where Andro has replaced creatine as the favored supplement and a high school grapples with how to deal with the dilemmas these pills present. His online report ran Nov. 9-13.

In fact, however, Andro has not been proven to be safe as much as it has not been proven to be unsafe. It's a key distinction that has its roots in a law that the average high school athlete, or even principal, could not be expected to be aware of -- The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, co-sponsored by Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, whose state is home to Weider Nutrition Group, the nation's largest marketer of vitamins and nutritional supplements.

Under the law, products classified as "dietary supplements" no longer have to go through the same rigorous approval process that the Food and Drug Administration imposes on new drugs. Now, if the government wants to remove a dietary supplement from the shelves, it must demonstrate that a product is unsafe.

Medical experts say it's too soon to know if Andro-based products are harmful, because there are no long-term studies in place and only today and many athletes using the substance now hadn't even heard of it until news reports of McGwire's use. But many of them are concerned, because Andro is a direct precursor to testosterone, the hormone that builds muscle and is the basis of various forms of anabolic steroids.

They also argue that it is in fact a drug, not a dietary supplement. Although not mentioned by name in the Hatch act, Androstenedione was covered by the law because dietary supplements were defined as including a wide range of substances, including metabolites. Since Androstenedione metabolizes into testosterone, it qualifies for an exemption from the FDA approval process.

"I don't know what you're supplementing in the diet," said Dr. Alan Rogol, a University of Virginia pediatric endocrinologist who regularly gets calls from teenagers and parents asking whether Andro is safe. "You're supplementing your natural hormones."

Efforts are underway to reclassify Andro. The Association of Professional Team Physicians -- the group that represents NFL, NBA, NHL, Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball team doctors -- considers it to be an anabolic (muscle-building) steroid and has called for the FDA to treat it as a controlled substance, as it is in Canada and some European countries.

WATCHDOG'S TEETH
1000k AVI QuickTime Supplement industry spokesman Michael Ford says the FDA's oversight of the supplement industry is adequate.

Until and unless that time comes, high school juniors such as Vreeland and Pair can buy Andro just as easily as they can a Power Bar, or a Butterfinger for that matter.

No prescription was necessary when Vreeland walked into Ultimate Nutrition and asked the salesman, a bodybuilder whom he figured was knowledgeable, for the "rawest," cheapest type of Andro product. He walked out with a $25 bottle of the 100-milligram pills, and, he says, advice from the bodybuilder to take twice the recommended amount because, at 270 pounds, he weighs more than the average human.

He goes through about a bottle a month.

"That's why I tell everybody to buy it off the Internet," Vreeland says. "Or try to find a little sports nutrition place like I found. It might be a hole in the wall, but they will give you wholesale prices."

Vreeland's parents objected to his use of Andro at first, just as they balked at his earlier use of creatine. "I think it's a bit of a shame that, at the high school level, that this is even considered," says Ed Vreeland, his father.

A large, bearded man who would look home in both overalls and a business suit, who moved his family from California two years ago in a corporate move, Vreeland knows a little about what's behind the Andro debate. A manager at the Baxter Corp. who has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 25 years, he's familiar with the horror stories of people harmed by drugs -- as well as the tales of woe from companies seeking FDA approval for good products.

Eventually, he let his son make the decision. Ed's caution gave way to Jeff's passion. Besides, Jeff says he checked Andro out with his team trainer, Bill Bullock, and that he raised no concerns.

Bullock denies advising Vreeland about Andro, or even knowing anything about the substance. "I hate to contradict (him), but I never knew that any of them were taking Andro," Bullock says.

Hmmm. So here in Mr. Griggs' quiet office sit Matt and Jeff, good kids who have broken no laws and are unaware if they've violated any rules. Next to them in another chair is coach Ricky Seale, who like Bullock professes no knowledge of Andro or its use by his players. And down the highway in Montgomery are the bureaucrats at the Alabama High School Athletic Association, who are supposed to weigh in on whether Vreeland and Pair are suspended for the Pelham game, imposing order on a situation cloaked in mystery provided by federal politics.

Maybe Orrin Hatch should have to sort this one out.

Part I: Andro meets Alabaster
Part II: Calling East Germany
Part IV: Upon further review
Reader reaction: To series, show, Andro issue.