Should Performance-Enhancing Drugs Be Banned?

1125 Words3 Pages

Many Athletes are willing to do whatever it takes to become a professional. One of the easiest ways to enhance natural ability is through performance-enhancing drugs or, PEDs. PEDs are substances used by athletes to increase their performance. The use of PEDs in athletic competition can date back to ancient Greece. Athletes use PEDs to run faster, jump higher and recover at an increased pace. Many athletes are pressured into using PEDs by coaches or managers and are not thoroughly educated the harmful health issues that can come along with taking performance-enhancing drugs. A rising issue is if performance-enhancing drugs should be allowed in professional sports. I believe that in any professional sport, the use of performance-enhancing drugs by athletes should continue to be banned because this rule will help to keep athletes from abusing these harmful drugs. Steroids can seem harmless to the uninformed user but they actually have harmful side effects. According to the article “News examines relationship between steroids and heart-related deaths,” published by New York Daily News, “The study (presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions in Chicago on Nov. 12, 2006) shows that deaths jumped from 476 from in 1980-1992 to 987 from in 1993-2005. Overall, 1,463 young athletes died between 1980 and 2005”(NY Daily News). This is a terrifying statistic and will only continue to rise. On the other hand, Radley Balko, Senior writer and investigative journalist at The Huffington Post participated in a debate about steroids in 2008, he said “As we've seen with government bans on consensual activity -- from alcohol to gambling to cocaine to prostitution -- prohibitions not only don't work, they make the activity in ques... ... middle of paper ... ...ing drugs were made legal it would contribute to a wider use of PEDs among athletes. If the use of these harmful drugs were to rise we would see much more health issues with athletes and possible death. We could also see a rise in the use of these drugs by adolescents. For these reasons alone I believe that performance-enhancing drugs should remain illegal for the welfare of athletes. Performance-enhancing drugs should continue to be banned from professional sports because they have side effects that athletes may be unaware of, there is a disadvantage to athletes that do use PED’s and it is unfair to previous athletes who hold records. Individuals may disagree and argue that we should revoke the ban so we will be able to monitor it more safely. If the ban on performance-enhancing drugs was to be lifted who knows what the next illegal drug to become legal will be.

Open Document