Drug Testing Student Athletes - Influential or Useless?
As spoken by the International Olympic Committee(IOC), “The administration of or use by a competing athlete of any foreign substance to body or injection of substance is unfair to the competing fields” (Yesalis 1). Basically any athlete who decides to use substances of any kind should be considered a lousy winner in the competition field and should be ashamed of their wrong-doing because many people choose to shortcut their way out of things instead of doing their best for higher achievement. Though many student athletes are considered elite and especially talented in the in the sporting field in which they are involved in, many audiences take observance of how the performing athlete appears which causes suspiciousness of the use of illegal substances or drugs; so when the suspicion of drugs are expressed through concern, that is where drug testing the elite performers comes into play.
Cheaters never prosper and cheaters never win because in the end, harm will be done. To ensure equality among athletes, drug testing should be presented. Why is this stated? Well, since becoming a major influence on many athlete’s lives, drug testing has been a process of developing results of illegal drug use. Dating back to the 1980’s, a standard practice of drug testing has been used by companies because of expression stated by the co-workers/teammates of the user. It has been stated by experts and is agreeable that illegal drug users will be unsuccessful in the career they choose to follow because they can endanger the lives of their surroundings and even though they were tested, concerns came about towards the accuracy of tests (Walsh 1). In exactly 1986, the United States government...
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...e right thing to do and will come to make a better solution. Once a certain argument has been won, multiple arguments can look to influence off the previous winner. When a solution is resolved by one, justice will have been served.
Works Cited
Nuwer, Hank. Steroids. New York: Franklin Watts 1990. Print.
Pilon, Mary. “Drug Tests For High School Student Athletes.” New York Times 2013. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.
“Survey of Institutional Drug Education and Testing.” NCAA.org. NCAA, 2011. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.
United States Department of Education. “Drug Testing Student Athletes.” www2.ed.gov. U.S. Department of Education. September 1996. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.
Walsh, Michael J. ”Drug Testing.” World Book Online Reference Center. World Book, 2014. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
Yesalis, E.C. “Doping.” World Book Online Reference Center. World Book, 2014. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
Citius, Altius, Fortius is the motto of the Olympic games. Translated from Greek, it means "Faster, Higher, Stronger". Recently, Olympic contenders have been doing everything they can to live up to that motto. Most do it by training hour after hour, each day. Others try to do it by illegally taking performance enhancing drugs. This is why we need to test for drugs at the Olympics. Drug Testing in the Olympics began only recently in the 1968 Games held in Mexico1. Drugs are banned for two very good reasons: the use of drugs produces an unfair advantage, and it is hazardous to the athlete to take them. While drug testing is now commonplace, the procedures are still fairly primitive and arouse much controversy2. We all remember the Andreea Raducan situation from the Sydney Olympics. She unknowingly had consumed a performing enhancing drug that was in her cold medication. Her medal was revoked as soon as the drug test results got back.3 While Andreea was caught, many others who intentionally "doped up" weren't Many of the drugs or procedures out there, still can't be tested for, and more and more athletes are cheating. Most of the drugs and procedures have adverse long term effects, some resulting in death. The drug tests are detrimental to the existence of the Olympics and need to be upheld at all costs.
The first drug test was taken at the Mexico Games in 1968. At these games the IOC(International Olympic Committee) developed a list of banned substances (7 Anonymous). This list included stimulants, beta-blockers, and anabolic steroids etc. Unfortunately, because of limited technology athletes learned how to get around the system. Athletes would substitute urine samples and some would stop using their drug in sufficient time so no trace of the drug would be in the blood before tests (7 Anonymous). But in 1983, drug testing was refined. The i...
...ng drugs will have a huge impact on them and the people that they are around. When a person does drugs once, they will keep using them and eventually become addicted. Drug testing student athletes is a necessity because taking drugs affects relationships that the athlete has, drugs cause consequence that can be detrimental, and lastly taking drugs hurt the body causing the athlete to have health issues. Hence, drug testing should be done in all high schools around the country.
Mitten, Matthew J. "Is Drug Testing of Athletes Necessary?" USA Today. Vol. 134. 2005. 60-62. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.
More and more, of our society views winning more important than itself. Success in competition brings status, popularity, and fame, not to mention college scholarships. Today’s athletes are looking for an advantage over the competition that will make them winners. Unfortunately, the drugs of today are caught up in the high stakes competition frenzy. Of this reality, teenage use of performance improved drugs is growing ever more popular. In colleges and in the professional league a lot of people are doing drugs and its ruining their health and life. Also, if some teenagers take performance drugs they are making them better than everyone else giving themselves an advantage over everyone else which is cheating, so why should they get money for using drugs to win, how do we know they aren't actually good at the sport? Performance drugs in sport should not be tolerated and should be illegal. Stores shouldn't give teenagers drugs that way they can do well in a sport. Many student athletes want to make their families proud by doing something their mom or dad never done.
If athletes were to be tested before every game, the use of performance enhancing drugs would be reduced drastically. This would cause younger athletes to stop using the drugs as often, make the games/matches more fair and equal, and it would cause the athletes to be healthier. Athletes ruin their lives and give themselves a bad reputation when they take performance enhancing drugs. When a professional athlete is caught using performance enhancers, they do not go undisciplined. For the first infraction, the player is suspended for the first game, for the second infraction, the player is suspended for one hundred games and for the third infraction, the player is banned from playing a professional sport for their lifetime. Is losing your professional career really worth it when you take the performance enhancing
Random testing is used more as a precaution to prevent students from taking the drugs and would eventually control the problem of student athletes taking drugs. Drug testing also has benefits to the student by encouraging them to become the best person and athlete they can be. Without drug testing, students are allowed to use illegal drugs as they please, which could potentially harm their body significantly. The advantages of illegal chemical testing in student athletes outweigh the disadvantages by a lot. Students should be pushed to their highest potential, and random drug testing in athletes can help do
Dolan, Edward F. Jr. Drugs In Sports. New York: Library of Congress Catalog in publication Data, 1986.
Scott, Michael. “The Use of Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Sports.” The Use of performance-Enhancing Drugs in Sports. San Joaquin Delta College, 2008. Web. 19 June 2013.
“A medical dictionary defines a drug as ‘any substance that when taken into the living organism may modify one or more of its functions’” (Newton 12). However, when speaking of drug testing for abuse a person is usually thinking about illegal drugs or drugs that can alter athletic performance in sporting events. Mandatory drug testing was not allowed in public schools until June 2002 when the Supreme Court allowed for public schools to do random drug testing (Carroll 23). This decision allowed for drug testing in all schools throughout the United States not just for athletes but also students who are in any activities within the school, for example clubs and competitive events (Carroll 23). Even though drug testing is now allowed by the Supreme Court many schools do not yet have mandatory drug test policies. Mandatory drug testing for high school athletes should be required because it decreases drug use in schools, is relatively inexpensive, and can prevent drug use and or abuse that can lead to a lifelong addiction.
Sports are full of entertainment and great players. Imagine if the players were boosted with skills and performed like the monster on the movie Space Jam. This would be amazing if you never watched space jam I highly recommended you do so. The movie was great; it had one of the worlds best athletes in it Michal Jordan. He is known as one of the greatest basketball players ever to play the game. Space jam can show how an extra boost can improve players’ game play to the next level.
First, when athletes cheat, they are not pushing themselves to achieve success. Cheating also affects the culprit physically, mentally, and emotionally. Doctor Yesalis, a prominent Professor of Health at Pennsylvania State University, states, "You do not need drugs to have a sense of fulfillment, to feel that you've left it all on the field," Yesalis says. "[Drugs have] taken something that God has given us—love of game and sport—and perverted us" (par. 3). Allowing drugs in sports will not prove who is better at the sport we will just see who is the biggest drug user. This is a great integrity check for the individual because it proves who is true to their profession. This also tests their intestinal fortitude to see if they will be man or women enough to do the correct thing.
Today, drug use in sport has reached enormous proportions in society and is destroying athletics from the ground up. Nowhere is the problem more serious than in professional athletics, where athletes, coaches and trainers misuse drugs in search of ways of ways to improve performance. Many athletes fail to take their time when making the decision whether to use drugs to their advantage. Unfortunately athletes may use drugs for therapeutic indications, recreatio9nal or social reasons, as muscular aids or to mask the presence of other drugs during drug testing. But the safety of the athlete's health is being neglected. Drug use has led to an increased number of deaths and suspensions of athletes. Also, if this continues all athletes someday will have to choose whether to compete at a world-class level and take drugs, or compete at a club level and be clean. In sports, athletes, coaches and trainers will try their best to find a way to reach the top level. They not only search for a way to enhance performance...
...thlete under twenty-four hour surveillance is neither feasible nor lawful. Only when there are more accurate tests can the enforcement of drug rules and regulations be possible. As more sophisticated tests come to market, fewer drugs will escape detection. With the limited ability of current techniques to catch athletes red-handed, pressure must be put on the athletic community to reject doping. Until the athletic community refuses doping as a means to an end, little can be done to stop it from happening.
Drug use in sports is considered cheating. Doping has many historical backgrounds, but now it is on a larger scale in order to maximiz...