Should Athletes Use Performance Enhancing Drugs

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Introduction

Should athletes be able to use performance enhancing drugs? In the Summer olympics from the years 1968-2008, there were 21,849 drug tests conducted. Of the 21,489 drug tests conducted 49% violated doping rules,(105). Between the years of the 1968 and 2010 Winter Olympics 7,783 drug tests were ran and 22% of them came back positive for anabolic steroids. These staggering statistics are just a tiny piece of a larger problem. Yes, the use of steroids happen in the olympics but there are cases of doping in the NCAA and professional sports as well, (NFL, NBA, etc.) The use of steroids eliminates competition and can lead to a plethora of health issues. From unattractive, unwanted cosmetic issues to life threatening risks. Breast development in men, higher testosterone levels in …show more content…

The scariest, most important health risk of all of this is death. But come on now, should it even be legal? Sports are all about competition right?

History
Using performance enhancing drugs has always been a practice, basically ever since sports began. They were first used in 776 B.C in the original Greek olympics. Consequences for using performance enhancing drugs started in 1968. A year before this there was a commission put together to fight against doping. Many people in the past have been disqualified from sports and competitions for doping. People have also had to serve jail time and have been stripped of their Olympic medals for doing this! There has been stripping of medals from sport categories like, athletics and weightlifting. In the past, whole team’s has even be disqualified from playing in Olympic Games just for one player testing positive for performance enhancing drugs. Today, consequences for doping are simple but stringent. They

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