Drugs and Athletes Drugs have became a major problem within athletes. There are two different types of drugs athletes are using: recreational drugs and performance enhancing drugs. Athletes ranging from high schoolers to professionals and olympians are all using these drugs. In my opinion I feel as if you are an athlete you should not be allowed to use any type of drugs. I believe even if they say the drug might make you faster or make you perform better it is still hurting or tearing down your body. I believe this because athletes that use steroids tend to be the ones out hurt during the season. Recreational drugs include marijuana, cocaine, and other substances that are taken for pleasure and not to enhance performance. They are illegal …show more content…
An international conference of government and sports organizations in 1999 formally condemned the use of performance-enhancing drugs. These organizations created an “anti-doping” code that requires the suspension of athletes caught using such drugs for two years. The code is enforced by WADA and the United States Anti-Doping Agency, the organization that enforces drug rules among American Olympic athletes. There are several types of performance-enhancing drugs: anabolic steroids, stimulants, human growth hormone and supplements sports use is hard to ascertain in part because athletes take pains to hide their use of such drugs. Anabolic steroids are synthetic substances that stimulate proteins that help build non-fat muscle mass, helping an athlete become stronger and able to train and play for longer periods of time. Stimulants help boost an athlete's energy level, helpful after strenuous training. Amphetamines are a type of stimulant. Athletes may think these drugs are helping them but in reality they really are hurting their bodies. These stimulants cause injuries to athletes. When athletes take these drugs it can make their muscles tighten and cause strains, tears, pulls, and many other injuries to the athlete's body. The word “performance-enhancing” doesn’t really mean performance-enhancing. It is really the …show more content…
. A drug is undetectable until identified. Indeed, common detection methods such as urine and blood tests work by knowing the molecular structure of a drug and then testing for either the drug itself or its metabolites. Thus, if a chemist were to make a slight modification to the structure of a drug or if an athlete took a new, unidentified substance, tests would turn up negative. Similarly, other drugs leave behind nothing but an increase in substances that the body already produces naturally by itself. I feel as if every athlete no matter the age or sport should have to be able to pass a drug test before being allowed to be put onto the team. Random drug testings during season could actually potentially help out with the problem also. If the athletes don’t ever know when they will be drug tested it could help keep them off drugs. A lot of high schools in today's society have put in the school's Code of Conduct that athletes are allowed to have random drug testing. Not only does this need to be happening in high school but it also needs to be happening in the NFL, Olympics, NBA and all other professional sports. When these high school athletes see the professional athletes doing these types of drugs it makes the high school athletes want to do them. The high school athletes look up to these professional level players. The high
Performance enhancing drugs affect so many people that don’t even realize it. Fans of the game, coaches, university leaders and of course athletes are the major groups of people that can be affected the most from the usage of performance enhancing drugs. Numerous studies have stated that an athletes drug use in sport could be credited to a complex interaction of personal and environmental factors (Judge). Athletes hold themselves to high standards for themselves or maybe even family members they must provide for. Athlete will do whatever it takes to strive in their sport because in most cases personal success can lead to better opportunities such as the National Football League or maybe even the National Basketball Association. Overall, individuals can be affected in a positive manner through the use of performance enhancing drugs. Furthermore, the use of performance enhancing can do nothing but help athletes. Also, some college athletes need performance enhancing drugs more than others. Not every athlete comes from a well provided family and knowing that can plaque athletes to where they’ll do whatever it takes to be successful. With this in mind it would totally be unfair if only one or a couple of athlete used enhancing drugs however if every athlete were granted the right to use performance enhancing drugs there
It is common sense that sports enhancing or any other drugs contain negative physical side effects. For instance, “males can become infertile and experience breast growth, while women can develop facial hair and an altered or completely suppressed menstrual cycle” (“Hoyle”). Balancing weight also starts to become an issue. In many sports, athletes wish to lose weight so they can compete in a lighter weight class” (“Diuretics”). These types of drugs are called Diuretics. Diuretics are used to remove water from the body. If the desired amount of fluid isn’t removed, the person feels that they should intake more until their mass goal is reached. If too many of these are taken, they can become very addictive, like any other
Abstract: Since the beginning of sports competition, athletes have always looked for some kind of edge over their competitors. They will do whatever it takes to be one of the elite, and that includes injecting supplements into their bodies to make them bigger, stronger, and faster. Steroid use is probably one of the most common drug misuses in sports competition. Athletes found that with anabolic steroids, one could become a better athlete twice as fast. Not until 1975 was the drug first banned from Olympic competition because of the health risks it produced.
Each day, professional and amateur athletes and body builders thrive to achieve their goals and dreams of winning gold medals or representing their country worldwide. The sports or games in which they participate require physical strength, athleticism and stamina, and due to the tough competition they face, some of these athletes decide to take performance enhancing drugs, an act called doping.
In many high schools around the country, student athletes are using drugs. “The percent of students that have drunk alcohol is 72.5% while the number of students who have used marijuana is 36.8%” (Report: Nearly Half of High School Students Using Drugs, Alcohol). The students believe that since they are athletes that they do not need to abide by the rules because they feel more superior and that the narcotic will not hurt or affect them. Implementing random drug tests for athletes will create a positive image and not hurt others or themselves. Schools need to have drug tests for student athletes because drugs effect relationships, using drugs have consequences, and lastly they have a major effect on the body.
Performance Enhancing Drug should not be allowed in any kind of sports. They are not good for the body; in baseball steroids help the players to hit the ball farther steroids is giving, athletes a better advantage allowing them to cheat. Not only it would affect the person using the drug people that look up to the athlete might do the same just to be great like their idle .To the other player in the sport or contest like lifting not taking the enhancing drug not fair to them .A steroid is a type of organic compound that help performance enhancing in sports or any kind of event which contains chain of carbon and hydrogen atoms called an alkyl group. These can be dangerous to the liver and to cholesterol levels when taken at high does. Inject able steroids contain an acidic chain of carbon and hydrogen called an ester that is slightly less toxic to the liver. In the 1860s, a group of swimmers in Amsterdam were charged with taking drugs to speed up their races. For the next 80 years or so, athletes who wanted to cheat focused mostly on stimulants to speed themselves up. The isolation of general steroids can be traced back to 1931, when Adolf Butenandt, a chemist in Marburg, purified 15 milligrams of the male hormone androstenone from tens of thousands of liters of urine.
...enon in sports. Some resolutions to this issue include not supporting teams and players that have previously taken steroids by not purchasing their teams or player merchandise. Another solution to this issue in sports is mixing up the times of drug testing throughout the course of a season, making sure the athletes do not know when the tests are coming. Steroids should not be permitted at all in sports and they should incorporate a zero tolerance policy so that if athletes are caught the first time they become banned completely. The game is played fairer and more even when there is a fair playing field and everyone abides by the same rules and guidelines set by the sport. This unleveled playing field has made sports much less interesting for the audience and has a negative impact on sports as a whole. The issue of steroids should be evaluated in sports immediately.
For centuries sports has been the favorite past time and for decades drugs, steroids and Performance enhancing drugs and regular street drugs have been used. In many locker rooms the motto is “if you’re not cheating, you’re not trying” (Schafer). Over the past decades many see the need to drug test athletes in order to maintain integrity of the sports. Drug testing athletes has to many lawsuits and even has gone to the U.S. Supreme Court many times because some feel that drug testing is an invasion of there privacy. Albiet, drugs have increased the entertainment when watching sports, it has also decreased the sportmanship and integrity. Drug testing is a deterrent that is needed in all sports to decrease the number of unethical players while increasing the integrity of a given sport.
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
The first reason why I think that steroids should not be allowed in professional sports is because it can be very dangerous to the athlete’s health. Athlete’s that use steroids are more likely to have heart attacks, liver cancer and have high levels of “bad” cholesterol. The use of anabolic steroids can weaken the immune system.1 This shows that athletes are not going up or down. At the same time they are working hard and maintaining their healthy body they are also risking their lives. The athlete worked hard their whole life to maintain their health and body and when they take steroids they are putting all the hard work to waste. “As part of a 2010 NIDA-funded study, teens were asked if they ever tried steroids-even once. Only 1.1% of 8th graders, 1.6% of 10th graders, and 2.0% of 12th graders ever tried steroids.”2 This statistic shows that as a person gets older they are more likely to try steroids. Furthermore it also shows that at a very young age some people begin to try steroids and start risking...
“Performance Enhancing Drugs: Know the Risks.” Mayo Clinic. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 12 Dec. 2012. Web. 19 June 2013
Drugs bring out the flaws in people. The worst decisions can ruin a life. Everyday drug users had the potential to become more. Sports increase the need for faster players allowing more opportunities in the drug world. Usage of steroids is a sickness and not acceptable on or off the field. By cheating your way to the top you crush people who equally worked hard as well. Athletes should be tested to prevent the unfair circumstances many find themselves in. Players should not be permitted to take any illegal drugs that could improve their status on the team. Sports is being born with drive and talent not taking a pill to make you unnaturally a great athlete.
...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.
Many people believe that drug use in professional athletics is not a serious problem, however it is more widespread and serious than people think. In professional athletics the use of drugs is looked upon as somewhat of a serious problem, but is also very discrete and low key. Every once in a while one might see a prominent figure in a certain sport being reprimanded for the use of some outlawed drug, however this is just one of the many who happened to get caught. Athletes today seem to find no moral problem with using performance-enhancing drugs, or in other words cheating. Also many of them feel that because they are "stars" there should be no repercussions for their illegal activity.
Secondly, performance-enhancement impacts the future generation of upcoming athletes. Professional athletes are role models to many world-wide. They are a symbol of inspiration and motivation to young athletes. Upcoming professionals look up to their determination and love of fair and true sportsmanship in successful athletes. Allowing performance enhancing drugs in ...