Should Athletes be Allowed to Use Performance Enhancing Drugs?

We all know that athletes get shamed on for using performance enchaining drug such as steroids or other hormones and we have all seen this happen to many of our favorite athletes. Should we really be worried about drugs though? Now a days technology is improving an athletes performance just as drugs would, so should this equipment be banned?  It turns out there are two sides to this debate. If all this technology can be used to enhance a player why can’t drugs be used? Lets take a look at both sides…

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Against Drugs Use:

Most people are opposed to the use of drugs in sports because they say that it creates an “unfair” advantage. All the other athletes worked hard to get to where they are today and they think that the people who use drugs cheated their way there. Besides for that, there are also many negative health risks that come along with these drugs. The athletes are only seeing the short term advantages it has for them but long term effects include irritability, depression, and suicidal thoughts and with a lot of abuse comes liver, kidney, and heart failure. Overall the use of drugs in sports only leads to a downward spiral.

For Drug Use:

For the people who are for drug use in sports they say that competition is unfair to begin with and its not the drugs that are creating the advantages. If drugs are unfair then coaching and training should be unfair too. All the new technology and equipment being using today is having a bigger impact on the athletes performance than anything else. They both produce the same effect so why are these techniques not banned? As far as health goes they say that people take risks everyday and taking these drugs is a risk the athletes choose to take. For example we don’t forbid people from smoking but we know it has negative effects. The same situation applies here and these people say that the choice should be up to the athlete.

Both sides to this debate put up a good argument but in the end I think it all comes down to health. Currently in the olympics today all performance enhancing drugs are banned with the attempt to create an even playing field. Although with all the new technology and training equipment available today an even playing field is way out of the question. At this point whoever has the best technology available for them has a clear advantage. So how is this advantage different from the advantage that an athlete would get from drugs.

When it comes down to it I believe that non-harmful performance enhancing drugs should be allowed in the Olympic games. They produce the same effect as the high end training equipment used today and if they are not banned then neither should drugs. Although I don’t believe harmful drugs should be used in the games because an athletes health is very important and they should not jeopardize that for a few good races. Overall I personally think non harmful drug should be legal in the games but in the end I think the choice is up to the athletes themselves.

 

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5 thoughts on “Should Athletes be Allowed to Use Performance Enhancing Drugs?

  1. Benjamin R Tuohey

    I like the idea behind your blog post I just think you should add some more specifics and look at more studies and things of that sort. Your opinion is important I think there should be some more facts throughout though. I definitely like the topic and I think theres so many athletes that use PEDs now its just so hard for the NFL or other organizations to catch them all and I’m sure there is ways that teams get out of it and guys get away with stuff. I think the rules and regulations should be more strict.

  2. Katherine Guerney

    I think that you brought up a really interesting topic. However, your blog is about opinions instead of focusing on studies or research that has shown whether performance enhancing drugs are detrimental for athletes. I think you would have been able to relate this topic to what we have been studying in class by discussing the effects of different drugs on an athlete’s performance and then long term health. Also I read this article which mentions that in the Summer Olympics in 2016, 83% of men were caught for drug use in comparison to 18% of women. This could also be an interesting topic to find out if/why men are more inclined to take performance enhancing drugs and even if there is a correlation between the type of sport someone plays and the amount of people that take the enhancing drugs.

  3. Daniel J Lehecka

    I think that this is a valid point in a vacuum, but as it stands athletes have to function as more then just their name implies. They serve as a role model to children all across the world, and I don’t think that teaching kids they need to use PED’s to reach the top level of competition is appropriate. According to a 2000 survey outlined in this article ( http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/story?id=100296 ), 73 percent of kids list athletes as one of their top role models in life. This is second to only parents, and as a result it’s in the best interest of athletic organizations to make their model athletes emulate the values that parents want for their kids. Also to your point on the Olympics, the point is to showcase the worlds best athletes, not the ones who can pay for the most cutting edge drug research and treatment.

  4. Monica Lynn Powell

    Hmm…your article gave me some things to think about. I have always just automatically believed that performance enhancing drugs should be illegal. I see what you are arguing and with more information I might be able to get on your side. I am curious what technology you are referring to that puts athletes on the same playing field as those taking performance enhancing drugs. I also see what you are saying about how we let other habits that are bad for your health go on, like smoking, without banning them. However, I feel as though doctors and scientists are right to ban them for their health risks. I think you have a good basis for the argument you are trying to make but to convince me I would need a lot more specific information which your article did not contain. Here is an article that I think you might find interesting. It talks through why we should allow them but with a bit more information to back it up.http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrissmith/2012/08/24/why-its-time-to-legalize-steroids-in-professional-sports/#48c5d3de1c0d

  5. Hannah Margaret Mears

    I think this topic is a very good topic to talk about today, but I do think you could have gotten a bit more specific. What kind of performance enhancing drugs are considered the non-harmful kind? I think that if athletes are wiling to perform at the highest level than they should be willing to train at the highest level. An athlete should not need a performance enhancing drug to help them run a little faster or jump a little higher when there are strength training programs to get them to that point. Watching the events would not be as fun or impressive to see records being broken knowing it was only because a steroid helped someone to do so. Plus, putting any type of drug into the human body is never a good thing so why start with athletes who need to ensure optimum health to compete? If you take a look at this LINK it will give more insight about steroids in general, the different types, and the harm that they cause to athletes. We need to think on a more practical level when thinking about taking steroids because the risks are not necessarily worth the reward.

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