Performance Enhancing Drugs Should Not Be Legalized

In every sport, there has always been a desire to win. Some athletes will do anything to make winning possible. Every elite athlete wants to be better than their opponent. Some rely on performance enhancing drugs, also known as PED’s, to improve their game. This topic is very important because it can be the difference between winning and losing. Winning can mean money, fame and a place in history. I believe athletes should not use PED’s in sports because it is an unfair advantage, health risk, bad role modeling, bad sportsmanship, and results in tainted records and awards.

First, PED use can influence kids in the wrong way and make them believe PED’s are helpful. Second, PED use is also a big problem in sports which can be fixed, through many things such as better testing, and increased education on what PED’s have an effect on your body. Finally the after effects of PED’s are also bad. They can lead to instability and serious problems that get the user into the hospital. Think twice about using steroids. Don’t end up like other athletes that have used steroids. Take them as an example of somebody not to look up

Drugs, they are a wonder of medicine. They can be very helpful, but they can also be very dangerous .Some athletes use peds, (performance enhancing drugs) for muscular growth and or endurance and an example of them are anabolic steroids. They give the user more muscular endurance and growth so they can work out longer and grow more muscle in a shorter amount of time. These drugs are used in athletics to help the athletes win and have pretty bad symptoms, not only that but it is unfair to the rest of the competition for them to have that kind of advantage. athletes usually are compelled to use drugs because they want to win at all costs.this, win at all cost, mentality is a reason why athletes use PEDs.we need to improve the regulations of peds in sports.

Groups such as the Clean Sports Collective understand the dangers of PEDs, and were created with the purpose of helping athletes stay clean (Will 2017 be the Year to Defeat Sports Doping). As previously mentioned steroids can cause shrinking of testicles and development of breasts in males. Along with this, steroids can also cause decreased sperm count with possible impotence, masculinization in females, development of acne or jaundice, and many other effects. These side effects are even recognized by the government, which have made some steroids illegal to the general public (How Dangerous are Performance Enhancing Drugs?). If regular citizens are blocked from certain drugs, athletes should not be an exception. Steroids make humans unnatural beings, which shows how dangerous they are. Steroids inject 100 times the testosterone found naturally in a male body (How Dangerous are Performance Enhancing Drugs?). Along with this, taking steroids, gene doping, and other forms of PEDs are dangerous just to take them the wrong way. Theodore Friedmann, the head of a WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) panel on gene doping in a 2010 interview, said on the dangers of gene doping, “The fact is that the material and information that the athletes have is very sparse and very incomplete and is obviously given to them with the hope of encouraging them to do something

The reference explains how performance enhancing drugs diminish the idea of participation and promote ONLY winning, ruins the ‘spirit of sport’, pose severe health risks, promote unhealthy and dangerous behaviour, and questions the ethical issues of drug advertising/ sponsorship if doping were allowed in

Peds can cause serious health effects and even cost you your life. Evidence to support my claim is “Physical Consequences of Abuse: Joint pain, Muscle weakness, Fluid retention, Vision problems, Carpal tunnel syndrome, Impaired glucose regulation, Enlarged heart (cardiomegaly), High cholesterol (hyperlipidemia), Diabetes, High blood pressure (hypertension), Changes in mood or emotional level, Increased aggression or temper, Muscle Cramps, and Kidney Damage.” (Performance Drugs among professional athletes -Tori Long) some drugs like Anabolic steroids can stunt growth and puberty in

In the article, “Performance Enhancing Drugs, Paternalism, Meritocracy, and Harm to Sports” by Nicholas Dixon, argues that PED 's should remain banned due to the many different medical risks one could develop when taking drugs mostly, anabolic steroids. Anabolic steroids might be the most popular performance-enhancing drugs out there today, but most definitely isn 't the only one being used. There are many medical problems associated with these types of steroids, “they include heart disease, cancer, or other damage to the liver, and damage to both males ' and females ' reproductive system” (Dixon, 247). Anabolic steroids affect an athlete both mentally and physically. The psychological damage one may have is an increased aggressiveness and sexual appetite, sometimes resulting in abnormal

The society and the doctors are highly concerned about the use of performance-enhancing substances in young people because of the potential health consequences and the long term or short term effects PEDs have on the development of the consumer and on the athlete’s turn of competitiveness. Some adolescents have a desire or temptation to use performance-enhancing substances. So when doctors or the society is shocked by the drastic increase of the usage of PEDs, it should really be easily understood by anyone who is familiar with high-level sports in society. By many people, winning is considered the most important goal of sports. If the team or athlete won a big game they are praised in rewards, celebration, status, and favoritism as if they

Athletes are in the public eye and their actions can affect those whom they portray as role models. Therefore, the use of performance-enhancing drugs should be banned and athletes who continue to use it should face severe punishments. Doping is a very controversial issue that started in a range between 776 to 393 BC during the original Olympic games. Since then, many athletes have had to return their medals and face their consequences. Because society had become accustomed to athletes using steroids and performance-enhancing drugs, the athletes that are caught are the only ones that are hated, yet not the ones who take it, but are not caught. These drugs provide an unfair advantage to the user, affect other people from youngsters to coaches

Athletes are tempted to use performance enhancement drugs to heighten their abilities in the performance of their sport. Which often consists of illegal or unethical use of these substances. Some reasons for the justification of their actions is to attain lucrative contracts, fame, and fortune. “It is the seduction of the quick fix—an immediacy to attain success—that drives so many people,” (Annie Hiyashi). Sometimes, it is the fear of losing it all that drives them to experiment with PED’s, not thinking that if caught, it will tarnish their reputation and will lose fame and

Competing at any level should be about ‘the spirit of the game’ by playing fairly and trying the hardest to succeed. Competitions are there to test the ability of athletes, to give them something to drive for. If the drugs are then legalised the meaning of competition would no longer stand. There is such a huge audience that come to watch sporting competitions, the Olympics attract people from all across the world to support their country. People engage in sporting events for different reasons. One of the main reasons is that with every match or sprint or swim comes unpredictability. The audience never knows how it is going to end, who will be the new titleholder of a gold medal. This then leads to the audience, forced to sit tightly and wait for the vital moment. By legalising performance enhancing drugs every athlete would be performing at predominantly the same rate leading to there being no room for improvement, making every competition very similar in terms for results. This would then effect the audience as it would become tedious knowing that the athletes who take the drugs would be at the

Performance Enhancing Drugs(PEDs) shouldn’t be used in sports, because of its adverse health consequences. According to an article called Performance-Enhancing Drugs Can Have Severe Long-Term Impact on Health: Expert, in the long term, PEDs can cause impotence, worsening acne, balding and “steroid rage.” This conveys that if athletes use PEDs there will be serious effects and severe consequence to their health. Also, the drugs aren't subject to government safety standards and could be impure or mislabeled.(Article: Performance-enhancing drugs: Know the risks?) Therefore, the illegal drugs and supplements that the athlete consume are dangerous, damaging and potentially deadly. The drug could be made out of something that gives you a disease or even kills you because it doesn’t meet the government safety

Doping in sports has been one of the most discussed issues by the world; either by the free writers or the body of agencies related with sports. The discussion about this kind of issue has started long time ago but it became more controversial and intense when Lance Armstrong, who won the 2002 Tour de France by leaving his nearest rival 7 seconds behind, failed the drug test (Cashmore) . Ellis Cashmore, a professor of culture, media, and sports at Staffordshire University in the United Kingdom, through his article, “Making Sense of Sports” , came up with an argument that drug should be allowed in sports. In the article, he effectively countered the argument of some people out there that taking drug will lead to the unfair competition. As we are from the generation who are never bored of seeking the best in human ability, the usage of drug is crucial in order to boost the performance of the athlete. The prohibition of drug usage in sports surely will affect the athletes’ performances and next lead to the turning off by the fans and this is surely a thing needs to be taken into account (Cashmore) . I, myself, agree with Ellis Cashmore that drug should be allowed in sports and I will explain my argument in terms of the misconception about drug, the role of drug in promising competitive sports, and the function of drug in maintaining athletes’ health.

The current issue in sport particularly athletics is the use of performance enhancing drugs popularly known as doping. Spectacular doping cases have risen in the sporting arena that has caused unexpected situations and annoyed the public who are the fans. People have limited knowledge regarding doping though it is an ancient time issue. As a result, some people believe that all professional athletes have always been doped to achieve the standards of good performance and even compete and win in most of the great tournaments (Anderson, 2013). However, the number of athletes that have been positively tested has been small and almost non-representative thus raising suspension that only a few athletes are the influence of drugs. This is not therefore enough to make a generalized conclusion concerning the world of sports.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention did a survey on high schoolers grades 9th through 12th and found out the 4.4% to 5.7% of boys and that 1.9% to 3.8% of girls have used illegal steroids (Fernandez and Robert). High schoolers are not the only ones that take performance enhancing drugs, all sorts of athletes and even nonathletes take them. Taking performance enhancing drugs harms the human body in so many different ways like it harms the Hormonal System, Musculoskeletal System, Cardiovascular System, Liver, and the Skin (National Institute on Drug Abuse). Even in some cases performance enhancing drugs have killed the user; there were several cyclists that have died from taking them. Because of all physically harmful effects that performance enhancing drugs have, it should be deemed illegal in all states.