Why Performance Enhancing Drugs Should Not be Legal - Free Essay Example

Well, when I think of steroids I think of an image. You have the advantage over someone, which is a form of cheating. I guess it wouldnt be right unless it was legal for everybody. Reason its not legal for everybody is because it can hurt people seriously. Evander Holyfield. Performance enhancing drugs are a big problem in sports. Some people dont realize this and dont see much harm in the use of them. These drugs have been a problem in sports for a long time. Big name athletes such as Anderson Silva and Lance Armstrong have been caught doping which is another word for the use of performance enhancing drugs. These are only a few of major athletes who have been caught doping and there are many more athletes who havent been caught. Performance enhancing drugs should not be legal in sports because they put the health of the athletes at risk, they influence the younger athletes, and they affect the integrity of sports. One of the biggest reasons that doping is illegal is because of all the harmful effects it can have on the body. According to law.marquette.edu The use of steroids can have serious health repercussions, including affected liver, endocrine, and reproductive function, tumors of the liver and kidneys, heart conditions, and psychiatric symptoms. These are only a few of the harmful effects that can happen if you use steroids. The chances of these side effects increase when the drugs are used more than the recommended amount and this usually always happens because people think that the more they take the bigger they are going to get and dont consider anything else like how they have to eat right and have a workout plan. Many people think they can just take these performance enhancing drugs and automatically get a huge strong built body by doing nothing. Taking these drugs will change the consumers whole life style. How they eat, how they train, and most importantly how their are harming th emselves. Steroids are a very common type of performance enhancing drugs. These drugs are used quite common in sports and bodybuilding. A big problem when taking these is they arent supposed to be consumed alone. There are many other products you take with these drugs such as a system support and many other pills that will decrease the harmful effects the steroids put on your body but they still make taking steroids harmful to your body. Many of the people who take these dont realize that they should be supported with other pills and just take them alone. These are drugs so many people do sell these illegally and smuggle them into the U.S. This makes people sell counterfeits of the drug. Just like other drugs such as cocaine and marijuana where people put in a bunch of other substances in it to make it weigh more so they can get more money out of it. According to anabolic.org counterfeit steroids are copies of real anabolic/androgenic steroid products, which are made from illicit producers. These drugs are intended for sale on the black market, ultimately to consumers who believe they are buying a legitimate pharmaceutical item from the labeled company. Most of the time these counterfeit drugs dont even contain any steroids at all and are just full of inert carriers, fillers, and binders. They mark their bottles to where they look identical to a legitimate brand of steroids and most people cant tell the difference. Some people make the argument to legalize steroids so they wont sell counterfeits anymore. Doing this would most likely cut down the buying of these counterfeits but still the main issue of steroids is the health risks and people would abuse this harmful drug. The side effects of the steroids can be different from a man and woman. According to www.webmd.com Men who take anabolic steroids may: Develop breasts, Get painful erections, Have their testicles shrink, Have decreased sperm count, Become infertile, and Become impotent. Women who take anabolic steroids may: Grow excessive face and body hair, Have their voices deepen, Experience menstrual irregularities, Have an enlarged clitoris, Have reduced breast size, and Have a masculinized female fetus. The effects can also be different on children such as being shorter and females can suffer from masculinization. These drugs have a lot of risk when taking them and yet they are still a very common used drug. Most of the effects of these drugs wont happen right away it will take time for these risks to really do damage to the human body. These drugs can be prescribed by the doctor if someone has suffered muscle loss from a disease such as cancer. Also if someone is suffering from hormonal issu es. There is some good use in these drugs but most of the time people abuse these drugs. Most of the people who use these drugs are athletes or body builders. They think using this drug will make them better than everyone else and usually that is the case but it is also considered cheating by all of the professional associations. According to www.drugabuse.gov The majority of people who misuse steroids are male weightlifters in their 20s or 30s. There are many ways to take these drugs such as a pill, injecting them into the muscle, and using them as a gel substance. Usually these doses are like ten times the strength of a prescribed dose from the doctor. Not only do these drugs have an effect on the body but also the brain. These drugs can cause some to be paranoid, extreme aggression, delusions, and impaired judgment. These drugs can have a very big impact on someones life just because they wanted to be better than everyone else when they were younger. The long term effects of these drugs are kidney problems, liver damage, tumors, enlarged heart, high blood pressure, a nd blood clots. There are many risks when someone decides to use these drugs and they can even be addictive to some people. These drugs dont cause a high like others but they still can be overused. People want to be bigger and better so they just keep taking them over and over. Some even take other drugs, like opiods, to help with the sleep problems steroids have gave them. People also will have withdrawals when they stop taking steroids after they have been consistently taking them for a while. These include fatigue, restlessness, loss of appetite, sleep problems, decreased sex drive, and steroid cravings. There even have been some cases of users who have had depression and suicide attempts. Steroids have been blamed for some cases of young adults killing themselves but usually there is not enough evidence to prove this. Another risk to the use of steroids is the needle. If the consumer injects himself with a needle that needle could result in the needle not being clean and then getting hepatitis o r HIV. There are a lot of risks when taking these drugs but that doesnt mean that people are guaranteed to get these side effects but they really increase the chances of getting these. It is like Russian roulette. Five people may take them and have no long-term problem. The sixth may end up dead. Kenneth Mautner. Another big reason for the professional athletes not to do performance enhancing drugs is they can put a big influence on the younger athletes. Many of the younger athletes have someone they look up to who is a professional athlete. They model their game after them and want to be them. If this athlete is caught doing these drugs or admits to it, it will send a message to the younger generation. It will send a message saying that performance enhancing drugs are the only way to be good at a sport and the only way to make it. It also could crush the younger players dreams and everything that they wanted to be. There have been many incidents were a professional athlete has been caught using performance enhancing drug. Some of the big name athletes who have been caught using these drugs such are Alex Rodriguez, Tonya Harding, Lance Armstrong, Pete Rose, and Anderson Silva. Getting caught using these drugs usually results in suspension or being banned from whatever professional league they are in. Alex Rodriguez was a huge star in Major League Baseball and he was the youngest player to hit 500 home runs. He was a very loved baseball star and had a lot of fame. After he was caught using performance enhancing drugs everyone was against him. The MLB suspended Rodriguez for 211 games. This forced him to miss the remainder of his 2013 season and all of 2014 season with no pay. He was forced to miss almost two years and got no pay for abusing these drugs. There are serious consequences for using these drugs and the leagues make it clear that if there is any use of these drugs then you will be puni shed. These professional athletes are having a big impact on the younger generation. According to www.nbcnews.com The confidential survey found that a majority of the students in grades 8 through 12 who admitted to using anabolic steroids say they would use a pill or powder to reach their athletic goals, even if it would harm their health or shorten their life. These kids would rather be good at sports and ruin their life instead of having a good and hard work ethic and have a healthier lifestyle. There are many more problems taking performance enhancing drugs as a developing teen then there are as a mature adult. These drugs have a way bigger effect on the younger and undeveloped bodies then they do a fully mature one. Some states are starting to test these younger athletes for the use of PEDs. There are a lot of problems with testing these athletes. The drugs dont stay in the system that long so if the athletes knew they were about to get tested then they could stop using them and wait f or the test to pass and start using them again. These tests are also really expensive for each state to do them so this makes most of the states not do the tests. Another big reasons is there are many different PEDs so some of these drugs wouldnt show up on some of the tests. This makes it extremely difficult to test for every single PED. Most of the bodybuilders use PEDs and they look way bigger than most people. If a young kid saw these bodybuilders and wanted to look just like them and wanted to be as strong as them it could have a big impact on their life. When these kids find out that most of the bodybuilders are using PEDs then they think it is ok to use them. They will think it is the only way to look like them and be as strong as them. They dont take in consideration the workouts and the meal plans that they follow to become that big. They just think take these drugs and you will be stronger, faster, and healthier. If states would teach younger kids about the effects PEDs can have in their life and how dangerous they are then this would cut down the use of these drugs. Most of these kids have no idea what these drugs can do to their health and think there is no danger in taking them. So if schools would teach about these drugs and inform the students that they arent as good as they sound then this could drasti cally cut down the use of these drugs in younger athletes and tell them that it is not worth the risk. Performance Enhancing Drugs also affect the integrity of the sport. Having any of the professional athletes take these drugs would give them an unfair advantage over the other players and would be considered cheating. Sports are suppose to be a fair competition between two teams to see who is better and deserves it more. Taking PEDs will give some people an unfair advantage over the opponent even if the opponent has worked harder than them. This not only is a form of cheating but it also is very dangerous. Take a sport like football or boxing both of these sports are very physical and can do major damage to the body. If the opponent has been doping they could be way stronger than the other opponent. They could be so much stronger than the other person they could actually do serious damage to their opponent and put their opponent into danger. It would be like going to school as a student you cant cheat on tests so for the athletes it should be no different. This is a form of cheating and it is why its banned in all professional sports. These drugs can get someone to be stronger and faster than any technological device could. If someone was taking these drugs for a long time and they have been very consistent then there would be no way to reach their level of physical ability without doping. Watching sports is a very popular thing to do and very many people love it. There is a lot of doping going on in professional sports. A lot of the professional athletes have used these drugs at least once in their lifetime and some might even still use them. This is ruining the fairness of the games we all love to watch. Playing sports should be competitive and fair and who ever wins should be the person who worked harder and wanted it more, not the one who used the most PEDs or whoever used them longer. This is why doping needs to stop being in sports before it ruins them. Some players have even accused their college coach of hinting the use of PEDs at them. If college coaches are hinting PED use among their players then soon almost every player in the professional level will be using these drugs and then sports will no longer be who is the better team, it will be who has taken the most drugs. Colleges should warn their athletes about these drugs not try to encourage them to take th em. It is not worth the risk and most payers dont understand that. All of these risks and they are still a very common drug in younger athletes. According to cbsnews.com With steroid use on the rise among high school athletes, clearly the message that drugs have no place in sports is not getting across. The temptation to win, earn that scholarship, or make big bucks is quite simply too much. They would rather be successful at a sport than live a strong healthy live. Everyone thinks russian roulette is stupid and no one is trying that for fun. Performance Enhancing Drugs are the same thing. The risks in taking these drugs are simply not worth it and never will be. Performance Enhancing Drugs shouldnt be legal in sports because they threaten the health of the athletes, they influence the younger athletes, and they affect the integrity of sports. Why would someone risk their life for an unfair advantage that could cost them their whole career.