The usage of performance enhancement drugs in sports dates back to ancient times when the ancient greeks would ingest raw animal testicals in order to augment their athletic performance in sporting events, such as the Olympic Games. Overtime, more performance enhancing drugs were discovered and used to help athletes’ gain a competitive advantage. However, due to advanced technology in modern day, athletes have the ability to attain PEDs more easily and raise their athletic ability drastically. This raises concerns and has sparked debates across the globe. Although PEDs such as cocaine, steroids, and doping have been banned in sports, new drugs are constantly being produced and marketed to enhance athletes athletic ability. Many are considering the idea that performance enhancement drugs should be legalized due to the fact that it will level the playing field, and provide athletes with the advantage they need to reinvent modern sports. However, the usage of PEDs comes with significant risks. Not only do these drugs pose major health risks to athletes of all ages, but it provides those who take PEDs with an unfair advantage. In addition, if PEDs were legalized in professional sports, teenagers and younger athletes will be more apt to using them. This heated debate on whether or not performance enhancement drugs should be legalized has drawn much attention from both sides. However, for the sake of athletes health and the love of the game, performance enhancement drugs should not be legalized.
Performance enhancement drugs fall into two major categories; stimulants and anabolic steroids. Other performance enhancement drugs that are commonly used are human growth hormone (HGH) and erythropoietin. While stimulants are primarily used to boost heart rate and other functions of the body, anabolic steroids stimulate the growth of muscles. However, PEDs pose major health risks to professional athletes. According to mayoclinic.org, some of the long term effects of PEDs are liver damage, stunted growth, disruption of puberty, insomnia, and an increased risk of strokes and heart attacks. Other effects of these drugs are impotence, severe acne, baldness, and steroid rage. The side effects listed are few of the many side effects of one group of PEDs, stimulants. This comes to show how severe the side effects can be of PEDs. In fact, in many cases, the effects can be life threatening. As a result, anti-doping organizations such as the World Anti-Doping Agency placed bans on many performance enhancement drugs. For example, some PEDs that were banned by anti-doping agencies across the glove are blood doping, anabolic agents, stimulants, narcotics, and cannabinoids. Many of the PEDs that are banned are due to the health risks posed by these drugs. For example, PEDs take a major toll on the heart, one of the most important organs in the human body. As stated by Truax in an article by Partnership News Service Staff, “The heart is a muscle….and the heart isn’t designed to have that much testosterone stimulating it […] so it will grow abnormally. Then, the testosterone gets broken down by the liver so too much can accumulate in the liver and damage it” (Truax). Studies show that PEDs negatively impact the heart and the liver. If PEDs were originally banned due to health risks, why unban them? Common sense, keep the ban. By unbanning PEDs, more athletes will be at risk for strokes, heart attacks, and liver failure.
Why do athletes take performance enhancing drugs at the expense of their own health, and lives in certain situations?
The competitive drive to win.
Many athletes livelihood, salary, and family depend on whether they are successful in their given sport. Thus, competitive athletes, primarily professionals, will do anything to win and get an edge over their opponent. However, athletes are putting their lives and everything on the line by taking performance enhancing drugs. If PEDs were to be legalized in sports, this would be risking thousands of athletes health and livelihoods.
Another prominent reason as to why PEDs should not be legalized is the fact that it gives athletes an unfair advantage. Whether it is soccer, football, basketball, baseball, or any other sport, people love sports. People love sports for the competition. People love sports because it is a way they can express themselves. People love sports for entertainment. People love sports across the globe and are devoted to the game. However, doping takes the passion, respect, and competition out of the game. It provides athletes with an unfair advantage. According to Richard Pound, former President of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), “Remember that athletes don’t take these drugs to level the playing field, they do it to get an advantage. […] The use of performance-enhancing drugs is not accidental; it is planned and deliberate with the sole objective of getting an unfair advantage” (Pound). Pound states that athletes deliberately take PEDs as a form of cheating, to gain an advantage against their opposition. In addition, many times athletes “reason” as to why they dope is to “level the playing field,” due to other athletes using PEDs. However, all athletes who use PEDs not only are breaking the rules of the game and laws, but are cheating their way to the top.
Whether the athlete dopes to build muscle, gain endurance, or simply to enhance their overall performance, it provides them with an unfair advantage over other athletes. According to Alysia Montano in an interview with “60 Minutes” about her loss in the 2012 Olympics, “They’re not really human. You know, they’ve altered their chemical makeup in a way that I’m not going to be able to do” (Montano). Unfortunately, Montano’s loss was due to other athletes doping during the 2012 Olympics. She witnessed first-hand of how much PEDs enhanced the other runners performance in the race. Doping gave other runners enhanced endurance, therefore they came ahead of one of the best runners in the world, Alysia Montano. Thus, by not legalizing performance enhancement drugs and adhering to the ban on doping, this will level out the playing field.
If professional athletes use performance enhancement drugs, are teenagers and ametuer athletes more apt to dope and use PEDs? Yes. Many professional athletes in modern day serve as role models to younger athletes who want to pursue their dream of becoming a professional. Whether it be Ronaldo in the soccer world, James LeBron in the basketball world, Tom Brady in the football world, or any other professional figure, young athletes aspire to follow their dreams and become just like their role models. However, if doping and the usage of PEDs were to become legalized, it will become much more common among professional athletes. As a result, more younger athletes will want to dope and use PEDs to enhance their athletic performance. Thus, not only will the legalization affect the health and competition in professional sports, but will have the same results in ametuer and high school sports as well.
However, despite anti-doping laws and regulations, there still are professional, college, and high school athletes using PEDs and doping to gain an unfair advantage today. Despite strict laws that prohibit the usage of many PEDs and doping, many athletes are still seeking an advantage. In fact, according to the World Anti-Doping Agency in a report to BBC in 2015, more than 10% of all elite athletes could be using PEDs. However, Sports Medicine reported back an even higher estimate placed at 15%-39% of all elite athletes. Thus, something needs to be done to bring these rates down. Adhering to the ban on PEDs and doping and enforcing stricter rules would aid in reducing these numbers. In addition, more frequent blood and urine tests need to be implemented for athletes both at the professional level and amateurs. By doing so, people will have to stop doping and using these drugs to refrain from being caught. Also, by implementing stricter rules on doping, athletes are less likely to do it and less likely to find what they need. Thus, there are methods in which to reduce the rates of elite athletes doping and using PEDs to gain and unfair advantage.
To conclude, by legalizing PEDs and doping, more athletes will have an unfair advantage and be at a higher risk for a multitude of negative impacts from the drugs. In addition, doping and PED usage will be more common among younger athletes. Therefore, for the sake of all athletes health and for the sake of the game, PEDs and doping should be prohibited and stricter laws should be enforced to protect others from these drugs.