The Negative Effect of Performance-Enhancing Drugs

Since the beginning of sporting events, athletes have looked for ways to gain a competitive edge over the other athletes. They will do whatever it takes to be one of the elite and that includes taking performance-enhancing drugs. Athletes competing at all levels pump themselves full of these drugs in order to get faster and stronger. They disregard the short term side effects and long term health risks that come with steroid use. Performance-enhancing drugs have become a controversial topic in today's sports arena. Some people believe they should be allowed in sports, while others argue that drugs undermine the competitive nature of athletics and have no place in sports. As tempting and harmless as performance-enhancing drugs may seem, it is important to know how these drugs work and the negative effect they have on your overall health.
Drugs have been used for centuries to improve athletic performance. The ancient Greek Olympians used a strong stimulant, strychnine, and hallucinating mushrooms to get "psyched up" before the games. In 1886, a French cyclist was the first athlete to die from a performance-enhancing drug. He took a mixture of cocaine and heroin called speedballs. Another incident occurred during the 1904 Olympics when Tom Hicks of the United States collapsed after winning the marathon event. It was later found that Hicks had drank a mixture of strychnine and brandy to enhance his performance. The first use of anabolic steroids in sports was by the Soviet weight-lifting team in the early 1950's. The Russian athletes took such high doses that the women began to look like men. Soon there after, American strength athletes began using these drugs on a wide scale. Within a few years, the use of steroids be...

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...no tests for these masking drugs (Silverstein 68).
These techniques and drugs for hiding steroid use are very effective, but this behind-closed-doors steroid use poses an ethical dilemma: is it fair? Most athletes choose to train and compete with nothing more than hard work and determination, and that is the way sports were meant to be. Some athletes, though, choose to put their lives in danger to gain an unfair and unnatural advantage. The users do not see their use as morally wrong because steroids are available to just about everyone, so the other athletes can use them, too. But should other athletes feel the need to use steroids to keep up with the ignorant users? No. All health risks aside, steroids simply have no place in sports. Sporting achievement is an accomplishment to be earned. It is not a commodity to be bought and sold in the marketplace (Catlin).