San Jose ? Congratulations to Ken Caminiti. Apparently, while attending classes at San Jose State and Leigh High, he learned that honesty is the best controlled-substance policy. Well, sooner or later.

This week in Sports Illustrated, Caminiti finally comes clean. He confesses that in 1996, taking steroids helped him win the National League MVP award. He says he took steroids until he left the major leagues last year.

Well, fine. Let’s give full marks to Caminiti for his truthfulness. Let’s acknowledge his candor. Then let’s do something else.

Arrest him.

Yes, I’m serious. Let’s haul in Caminiti on his anabolic haunches, charge him with illegally buying and possessing steroids. Evidence? How about self-incriminating statements in a national magazine? How about showing no remorse for breaking the law?

Check out this quote, direct from Caminiti in the SI story: “I’ve made a ton of mistakes. I don’t think using steroids is one of them.”

Caminiti’s reasoning is in-your-face blunt. Because the steroids helped him win the MVP and earned him millions, he believes the bargain he cut with the devil is no problem. His body is now breaking down because of the drugs he took. Caminiti thinks he hurt only himself with his steroid choices so why should anyone else care?

This is the attitude, evidently shared by many players, that will help push baseball into the abyss. It’s headed in that direction already. Currently, there’s no steroid testing in baseball. Major league owners, who for so long looked the other way while so many players grew so large, now realize what a mistake that was.

The owners paid $317million in salaries to players on the disabled list last season. In many cases, those players were injured because their bulked-up bodies snapped ligaments and tendons that weren’t built to handle so much muscle. Therefore, in the ongoing negotiations for a new contract, owners are asking for steroid tests. The players, for now, are rejecting those requests. They buy into Caminiti’s logic.

And they are so wrong. Used to be, I could almost acknowledge Caminiti’s point. Now I totally reject it. And any person who loves sports for the right reasons for the competition, for the thrill of seeing an individual reach his peak moments under pressure had better do the same.

Look, this is nothing personal with Caminiti. He’s fighting demons. He’s serving three years’ probation from a crack cocaine arrest in November in Houston. He’s a recovering alcoholic. I hope he gets his life together.

The scary part is he honestly believes steroid use helps the game. I don’t buy it. Sports fans care about competition, strategy, drama, a level playing field. And they understand that it’s inherently unfair to have players who choose to grow artificial biceps competing against players who don’t want to take that risk.

After the NFL Players Association agreed to steroid testing. I figured baseball players would eventually come around to the same way of thinking. It doesn’t seem to be happening. Caminiti estimates that around half of today’s major leagues have used steroids. They can’t all be ignorant. They are stubborn. This week, Caminiti has provided a weapon to help clean up his sport. Baseball should use it.