Drug Testing In Sports

The use of illegal substances is rapidly increasing in the college sports due to the expansion of supplements used by athletes that are being banned. In a study done, athletes were asked if illicit drugs would negatively impact their performance. Majority of them responded “yes”, their main reasoning being; the effects of illicit drugs were both mental and physically damaging. Illicit drugs come in many forms, but the testing procedures are all the same for any substance. There is almost always a consequence with the use of prohibited substances. Drug testing is appropriate to help ensure the safety of student athletes while they participate in intercollegiate contests. (Krotee, M 555).

Abstract:  With the increase of competition has also come the need to become bigger and stronger than the opponent.  The use of steroids among athletes has caused the focus of the game to change.  No longer does an athlete want to win by doing their best, but they want to become bigger and have an advantage over the opponent.  Ultimately, all athletes feel that they need to use performance-enhancing drugs to compete at the same level. Despite all of the warnings and information on performance-enhancing drugs, athletes continue to use them and overlook the potential health risks associated with steroids.

The use of drugs date back to the ancient Olympic games. This is where the word doping originated from which was the Greek word “doop” (CITE). Performance enhancing substances also known as steroids are used for the improvement of human activity. Because drug use is also a huge thing outside the United States the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) was created as the first international governing body to prohibit doping. However, at the 1960’s Olympic the first athlete to die of doping was of the name Knut Jensen. He was a Danish cyclist who was found with narcotics in his system which resulted to his death. In result, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was established to fight doping. The United States created their own anti-doping agency called United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). Therefore, drug testing is an important factor in professional sports world-wide.

Life is all about making decisions, and the ones an individual makes has an impact on him or her for the rest of their life. Drug testing high schools athletes could benefit them and their community in many ways. It will keep the kids healthier and make them pick a priority and help them mature. Drug testing is a great way to insure that the kids stay safe and out of trouble.High school athletes need to set up a good future for themselves, without drugs hindering them from their goals.

Slowly pushing students to become addicts, drug testing high school student athletes may or may not be to blame. In Facts & Statistics on Random Drug Testing of High School Students, Dr. M.H. Davis stated, “In the early 1990s, many school districts began to look into drug testing as a way to curb student drug use, which led to two U.S. Supreme Court cases involving student privacy. The court upheld the constitutionality of drug testing student athletes in 1995, and in 2002, the court expanded high school drug testing policies to include all students who participate in a competitive extracurricular activity. In those rulings, the court stated deterring student drug use was more important than privacy” (Davis). Drug testing high school athletes

The primary difference between athletes taking steroids and assembly line workers taking opioids is that the latter could be directly endangering those around them in an immediate way. Whereas athletes do serve as role models for young people and should not be normalizing the use of steroids, their choice to dope is one that has little direct impact on other people. Therefore, the argument can be made that certain jobs and certain tasks do not warrant aggressive drug policies to curtail the use of substances by employers.

The main belief among young athletes is that by using drugs (especially performance-enhancing drugs), they will gain a competitive advantage among the competition. However, no matter the purpose, taking steroids or other drugs not prescribed by a physician is illegal and needs to be closely monitored at all levels of athletics. Some people might believe that mandatory drug testing would cause turmoil

The court case I studied was on March 19,2002 were the student Earls took the board of education to the supreme court because she thought drug testing students was violating the fourth amendment. She also took them to the supreme court because she said that they weren't giving evidence for drug testing students in competitive sports.

I believe that drug testing all athletes is a good things for many reasons. One reason is the fact that “half of high school seniors have used an illicit drug by the time they graduate and about one-quarter are regular users by the time they graduate,” according a statistic study done in (YEAR) (Roan). This statistic shows that a lot of the people are using drugs during school. Nevertheless, some athletes are using these drugs while they are playing a sport which is an unfair advantage to other athletes. One key example of this is steroids, which are seen “[producing] quick gains for the athlete,” and giving the athlete an unfair advantage over other players (Steroid). This is important as these athletes are fighting to get a scholarships

Nobody would argue that the quality of sports is basically dependent upon the level of skill of its players. As the skills of the players improve, so too does the quality of the game. So why are substances that would further athletes’ skills beyond human levels so ostracized? Doping is the practice of using steroids and other illegal substances to boost performance in sports and athletics. The debate of the morality of such substances has been going on for decades and continues to affect the world of sports in many ways. At the moment, steroids and all other performance-enhancing drugs are banned in their entirety from nearly all sports in most countries of the world. Scandalous lawsuits involving athletes abusing substances are constantly popping up, usually involving players and athletes that were considered fan-favorites or even heroes. Performance-enhancing drugs should be allowed in sports because it would make it easier to control them, allow athletes to perform better, and widespread use of steroids would allow more solid research and advancements in the pharmaceutical field.

Athletes using performance enhancing drugs has been a problem since the late 1990’s. For the athletes the use of steroids are cheap, easy to access, and effective; that is until now. Collegiate Student Athletes should be drug tested every season for illegal substances before they are allowed to play. There are many reasons why these athletes should be tested, such as the negative effect steroids have on their bodies, the drugs are illegal to use, and if caught using these drugs the athletes careers could be over.

This is because when athletes take steroids they get much stronger and it gives them a better advantage than other athletes. Many people think that these athletes have records and played like a legend in the game only did it because they took steroids. People believe that they didn’t deserve to become amazing since they cheated and steroids helped them. Taking steroids can cause your health to be bad and can possibly be hurting others. Taking steroids is very dangerous and people should be punished

Professional sports are a competition between the greatest athletes in the world. And when I go to a game, that’s exactly what I expect to see. Sports are entertainment. There is no room for purity and respecting the limits that athletes had in the past. Modern athletes should utilize all the resources that they have available to them. This includes steroids, which enhance an athlete’s performance. After all, performance is what really matters.

     The last reason why drugs should be banned in sports is because of the many teenagers that are abusing them. According to the National Institutes of Health, a half- million kids under the age of 18 are abusing steroids. It seems that we’re raising a generation of individuals destined to be highly aggressive or severely depressed. Most teenagers do not know the effects that steroids can cause. They lower good cholesterol and raises bad cholesterol. That gives users a better risk

Doping in sport has been prominent since the Olympics were first introduced in Ancient Greece, with competitors supposedly ingesting Strychnine as a performance enhancer (Fitch, 2012). This has continued into today with new research commencing weekly investigating performers using performance enhancing drugs in a world where the difference between first and second can cost an athlete millions in sponsorship and reward money. The regulation of doping in sport was not introduced until the 1960’s, when the sudden death of a cyclist at the 1960 Rome Olympics was attributed to the amphetamines in his system taken as a performance enhancer. Consequently this kick started the fight against doping with the IOC creating a list of prohibited substances in 1967, containing mostly stimulants. World Anti-Doping Agency (2003 [online]) states that “The spirit of sport is the celebration of the human spirit, body, and mind.” and is characterised as keeping true to “ethics, fair play and honesty; health; and respect for rules and laws.” (p.3), this alludes to the fact that doping is in breach of these characteristics and should be eradicated to maintain the spirit of sport. This essay will review current thinking about performance enhancing drugs in elite competitions, the research undertaken and the resolutions suggested.