Steroids, Illegal or Not, a Quick Fix for Some Athletes

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Issues of cheating or winning at any cost, are becoming more and more common among athletes of all ages and levels of ability. The use of steroids is one of the biggest issues in the current debate weather or not it is fair for drug-free athletes to have to compete with athletes that break the law and take illegal steroids. Allowing those with an unfair advantage to compete can pressure drug-free athletes to use anabolic steroids to remain competitive. In fact, some legal analysts have viewed this issue as a reason for an Anabolic Steroid Control Act, but does the Anabolic Steroid Control Act work? Whether providing criminal penalties for illegal steroid use is the proper and most effective way of dealing with the "steroid problem" has been debated for quite some time, but the Control Act has been found to deter trafficking, protects young people, and preserves fair competition in sports.
The following exert is from an editorial by M.G. Di Pasquale concerning drugs and sports. “Contrary to what most people believe (the media's irresponsible sensationalism has resulted in the widely held mistaken view that the use by athletes of anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs is a problem on par with heroin and cocaine abuse), the use of drugs, such as anabolic steroids, by athletes is a problem, not because of the addictive and dangerous side-effects of these compounds, but because these drugs offer an unfair advantage to the athletes who don’t use them.”
Anabolic steroids were developed in Europe around 1930 to treat undernourished and healing patients after surgery. Anabolic steroids are a drug containing hormones which can be used to increase strength and promote muscle growth. Competitive weightlifters began using these steroids around the 1950s as a way to increase their athletic performance and gain an upper hand on the rest of their competitors. After its initial use in bodybuilding the drug spread like wildfire thought the rest of the sports world, ranging from sports in high school to professional athletes in the Olympic Games.
The use of anabolic steroids has been on the rise in the last ten years. It has been estimated that at least 1 in 15 male, high school sports athletes have used steroids, which means more than a half-million high school athletes have used steroids. On the web site, www.steroidabuse.org, an article states “There has been recent evidence suggesting that steroid abuse among adolescents is on the rise.

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