Essay On Drugs In Sports

When you hear the names: Barry Bonds, Lance Armstrong, Alex Rodriguez and Jose Canseco what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Those are the names of some of the most famous athletes in the world. They were all at the top of their game and considered the best players in their sports, but they all had one problem. They all used performance enhancing drugs such as steroids to get the upper hand. Their decisions to do performance enhancing drugs doesn’t only affect their careers it affects society in a lot of ways. It became a social phenomenon.

So what is social phenomenon? According to John Fordyce Markey, “Social Phenomena is considered as including all behavior which influences or is influenced by organisms sufficiently alive to respond to one another. This includes influences from past generations.” In other words, a topic becomes a phenomenon when it influences society to change because of it. The use of drugs in sports is a phenomenon because it alters the way people view the use of drugs both positively and negatively.

In this paper, I will be discussing why drug use in sports is an issue in our society and explain how it is affecting the younger generation of athletes and how it changes the way we view sports.

The main topics I will talk about are how high school and college athletes are using drugs because they see how much it helped the athletes who are mentioned in my introduction. How it affects the way fans view the sport when they gain the knowledge that some of the best athletes are using steroids. Lastly, how the negative effects of taking performance enhancing drugs have affected so many people and what they are trying to do to stop young athletes from doing these drugs. Then, I will give a real life example of how this phenomenon has affected society. Finally, I will find out where the deviance lies and choose whether our society is creating deviance or are the people who are engaging in this

deviant.
Drug use in sports has been around for decades. Especially in professional sports, this is an issue because our society looks up to these athletes as role models or even heroes at times. When they see the best player in a certain sport do great young athletes want to do anything and everything to be just like them. When a player of that status tests positive for performance enhancing drugs, the older generation of society understands that what that player did was illegal and frowned upon. But, the younger generation does not understand the magnitude of what the player did and since they have no knowledge of why it is illegal they do not understand why it is wrong. They follow the concept of “He is the best player so if he did it then I should too” and that is how these athletes are influencing the behavior of these young athletes.
This is a very meaningful topic to our society because sports are a huge part of the culture and it is what a lot of people use to communicate and take pride in, its what makes our country the greatest country. Sports can do special things; it can give a kid from the gang related neighborhoods a way out. It keeps a lot of kids off the streets and out of trouble. It gives them something to look forward to when going they are going through a rough time. When athletes get caught using drugs it taints the sport and it creates a black cloud over it and maybe one day it can cause sports to disappear. That is why it is such a meaningful issue.
Professional athletes have so much influence over high school and college athletes. They have this influence because they are where all of them want to be. These young athletes watch highlight films, watch them on television and even try to copy these professionals. When news arise that these professional athletes have tested positive for performance enhancing drugs it has both positive and negative effects on these student athletes. Some of them know that what they did was wrong and who was once their role model is now someone they are disappointed in. On the other hand, a lot of these student athletes see use of performance enhancing drugs are “okay” because the professionals are using it. They have the idea of “look where it got them”. And they say maybe if I take these drugs then I will be as good as them.
According to “The Foundation for Global Sports Development” around 2.5% percent of middle school athletes have admitted to using steroids and 6.5% of high school athletes also admitted to using steroids. That is just the percentage of students who have admitted to it, the real number of students using is likely to be much higher. Middle and high school athletes are not aware of the harm these performance enhancing drugs can cause to their body, especially at a young age.
Professional athletes are not the only ones that influence these student athletes to do these drugs. Recruiters also play a big role. They don’t particularly tell them to take performance enhancing drugs but they tell these student athletes that they need to be bigger and stronger. Usually, when a student athlete talks to a recruiter it is around their junior or senior year so that leaves very little time to naturally get stronger. That is when these athletes turn to performance enhancers because they are under pressure to either take steroids to get bigger or risk not being able to play at the next level.
This phenomenon does not only affect our young generation but it affects all ages. All ages are passionate about the sports that they love. When fans hear news about their favorite players or players on their favorite team have cheated by using steroids it changes the way they view them. It almost creates a black cloud over the sport. Sports are meant to be fair and when a player is cheating it almost belittles the sport. As fans are let down it can cause them to go back to the streets and engage in criminal behavior.
The negative effects of steroids are detrimental to an athlete’s body and has many harmful side effects. Stated by Global Sports Development some of the side effects are; face and body acne, mood swings, aggressive behavior (otherwise known as “roid rage”), changes in sex characteristics, and liver damage. These athletes may hear about these side effects brush them off as nothing but all of those lead to a very sad ending. That is suicide, many teens each year commit suicide because of the deep depression caused by steroids. This depression does not always occur during their cycle; it occurs after they stop taking it.
One lived example of this phenomenon is Alex Rodriguez. Early in his career Alex was labeled to be one of the greatest to ever play the game of baseball. He was the youngest player in the Major Leagues but also one of the best. He was a lot of people role models and people loved him. In 2009, all of that changed. Alex admitted to using performance enhancing drugs from 2001-2003 while playing for the Texas Rangers. He stated that he did it because “the enormous pressure he was under”. Soon after the news spread throughout the country, he went from being everyone’s favorite player to one of the most hated players in the sport. He was suspended for over 200 games. Although, Alex Rodriguez has been clean of performance enhancing drugs for the past 2 years, he is still labeled as a cheater by the people of our society. No matter how good he does or the records he breaks people will use the labeling theory and say that he is a cheater.
I feel as if the deviance is created by our society. Yeah, the people that are engaging in this behavior are at fault but as a society we have built this certain image of how sports should be played. We take pride in our sports and what the game to be as pure and fair as possible. As a society, we have created the norms that do not involve cheating. When a player does get caught cheating there are punishments that are handed down.
Finally, I don’t think that our society can completely put a stop to this issue of athletes using performance enhancing drugs in sports, especially young athletes. But, what we can do is educate these young athletes of the harm they are causing to their body. Most of them think that it is the only way to get physically stronger but they are wrong. To many talented athletes are taking their own lives because they feel the pressure to have to perform at a higher level or be something they are not. It has to start with the professional athletes that all of these young athletes look up too. If they realize that their role models don’t need it then they will also understand that they do not have to take performance enhancing drugs.