A waste of resources, and prosecutorial grandstanding. These cases suck time and money that should be allocated against violent crime. Tobin has it just right:
The news today that former baseball great Roger Clemens has been indicted on federal perjury charges will, no doubt, serve as the catalyst for another outpouring of moral outrage about the use of steroids or other so-called performance enhancing drugs in sports. Clemens, like Barry Bonds, another superlative player who has also been indicted for perjury about his steroid use, is exactly the sort of person the authorities love to single out for prosecution: wealthy and arrogant, and thus extremely unpopular.
….the government has yet to demonstrate why the use of these substances is of sufficient import to justify the not inconsiderable resources that the Justice Department has deployed to ferret out baseball’s steroid users.….what national peril did steroids pose to the republic and its citizens that made it necessary for both Congress and the Department of Justice to spend so much time and money chasing after Clemens and Bonds?
….The real reason is that prosecuting wealthy adult athletes generates enormous publicity, which is something that both members of Congress and federal prosecutors crave.