News accounts say that federal prosecutors are investigating to see if Barry Bonds committed perjury when he allegedly told a federal grand jury in San Francisco that he had not used steroids.

Now, Bonds is hardly my favorite professional athlete, and if he does pass Hank Aaron’s career home run record, the number almost certainly is going to need an asterick by it. However, it would seem to me that an “are you using or have you used steroids” question is little more than an attempt to use the grand jury process to criminalize that which is not criminal.

As the Drug War has ground on, it has expanded and expanded and expanded. We hear about the “dangers” of steroids, and I am not particularly fond of their use by athletes. However, steroids, unlike federal prosecutors, do not threaten our liberties. Once again, we see that grand juries are a sham, little more than a playground for prosecutors.