the article doesn't note this explicitly, but possession of testosterone without a prescription is a federal crime because testosterone is a Schedule III substance, and you can receive up to a year in prison accordingly on your first offense (and up to ten if you possess with "intent to distribute"). the scheduling also makes even legally acquiring testosterone a hurdle for a lot of trans and gender nonconforming people, because of how it's regulated:

“Criminalization has made it easy for pharmacists to deny my [testosterone] prescription, which has happened to me many times,” Artemis McGettigan, a trans student in Dearborn, Michigan, told Filter. “[Pharmacists] have told me in the past that ‘It’s corporate policy, they’re not allowed to fill that type of prescription … but I knew that was false because other CVS locations, for example, were able to fill it.” A CVS media representative told Filter that its policies “do not prohibit our pharmacies from filling testosterone prescriptions.”

[–] mekhos@feddit.de 3 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Would it be fair to say that these restrictions were likely first introduced amid concern potential for abuse as performance enhancing by body builders and sports people, more than punishing gender variant people.

[–] alyaza 8 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

those are actually the reasons they were introduced; but they're also almost entirely immaterial to the harm which is being done, because testosterone's restriction unsurprisingly comes down most heavily on people with legitimate medical uses--people transitioning and people who have medical issues necessitating the use of testosterone--and not people who use it illicitly or illegally.

[–] mekhos@feddit.de 5 points 2 years ago

Oh, yes that sucks. Hopefully the rules can be updated for legitimate users soon.

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