1) Steroids were illegal in baseball last year, however they were illegal in the U.S. as of 1988 for non-medical reasons
2) MLB started testing players this year, mainly due to the Players Union considering steroids to be nothing more than "smoking", Owners wanted steroids to be illegal in 94.
3) Barry hasn't failed, however he has/(continued to use??) THG which is a steroid masking agent and used to hide from tests. As of now there's no known test for THG and the Players Union is fighting like crazy to limit testing.
4) Not yet
However Barry admitted using a steroid creme during an investigation in BALCO.
Now here's some questions for you:
1) Do you consider someone a cheater if they used steroids?
2) Would you think a record needs to have an asterick or removed if said user achieved record by using illegal performance enhancing drugs or other cheating methods?
3) Would you forgive player in question 2 if they hid use for over 5 years and during this time accused you of being racist for accusing him of cheating? Would you forgive player 2 sooner or later than a player who admitted using cheating methods and regrets said action?
4) Would you forgive said player if he refuses to talk to the media, yet when he does he goes off on a rant about racism?