Picture someone you know winning an Olympic Gold Medal and a month later it being stripped from them for testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs. Performance-enhancing drugs (PED’s) have been around for centuries and used by many different sports and athletes. As the incentives grow bigger, athletes turn to PED’s more for helping them strive to be the absolute best at their position. In recent years more athletes have been suspended for the use of PED’s; from college to the pros, athletes have had penalties for the use of steroids to stimulants. Certain PED’s should be legal, because of the benefits to athletes, the ability to control the usage of PED’s, and the opportunity for testing,
PED’s benefit an athlete by building muscle …show more content…
“Success in competition brings status, popularity and fame, not to mention college scholarships. Today's athletes are looking for an advantage over the competition that will help make them winners” (Children's). “Roughly 3.2 percent of American high school kids- boys and girls- took steroid pills or shots without a doctor’s permission at least once in their lives, according to the U.S. Department of Health’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey published in June 2012” (Roberts). “The types of common PED’s being used in high school include creatine, ephedra, anabolic steroids and steroid precursors. Creatine is not a steroid but is promoted more as a muscular performance enhancer. Ephedra is a stimulant to help reduce fatigue, lose weight, and maintain mental alertness. Ephedra is banned by the U.S Food and Drug Administration” (Roberts). It is almost impossible to stop young athletes from being involved with PED’s. “These are not products that assure safety and efficacy. Prescription and over-the-counter medicines must go through rigorous testing to be proven safe before being sold to the public, but supplement products appear on store shelves without regulation from the Food and Drug Administration and must actually be proven unsafe before being removed from sale,” (Feliz). Being able to legalize these PED’s in sports would help control the usage in athletes along with help provide a …show more content…
Sharon Ryan with West Virginia University explains that "It would be interesting to know the effects of PEDs under legalized and carefully monitored conditions. Athletes are buying drugs from people like Victor Conte, who has no pharmaceutical or sports medicine credentials, and they are shooting up in locker room stalls. If PEDs were used properly and developed in reputable labs by top scientists, perhaps the risks of PEDs would be much lower. Perhaps PEDs could be developed that have very little risk and enormous benefits. These are serious questions for the scientists to figure out" (Ryan). People are more concerned with the health risk that come along with steroids but, also they don’t understand athletes to put themselves at risk by just stepping into the playing field. “Concussions, a line drive to the face in baseball, and illegal hits are all part of the game and players know what they could face. If performance enhancers were made legal, then they could be safely distributed and regulated so that players aren’t forced to rely on shady back alley transactions for untested drugs” (Smith). Athletes will always use steroids and drugs no matter what the rules are; legalizing these certain drugs
PED’s benefit an athlete by building muscle …show more content…
“Success in competition brings status, popularity and fame, not to mention college scholarships. Today's athletes are looking for an advantage over the competition that will help make them winners” (Children's). “Roughly 3.2 percent of American high school kids- boys and girls- took steroid pills or shots without a doctor’s permission at least once in their lives, according to the U.S. Department of Health’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey published in June 2012” (Roberts). “The types of common PED’s being used in high school include creatine, ephedra, anabolic steroids and steroid precursors. Creatine is not a steroid but is promoted more as a muscular performance enhancer. Ephedra is a stimulant to help reduce fatigue, lose weight, and maintain mental alertness. Ephedra is banned by the U.S Food and Drug Administration” (Roberts). It is almost impossible to stop young athletes from being involved with PED’s. “These are not products that assure safety and efficacy. Prescription and over-the-counter medicines must go through rigorous testing to be proven safe before being sold to the public, but supplement products appear on store shelves without regulation from the Food and Drug Administration and must actually be proven unsafe before being removed from sale,” (Feliz). Being able to legalize these PED’s in sports would help control the usage in athletes along with help provide a …show more content…
Sharon Ryan with West Virginia University explains that "It would be interesting to know the effects of PEDs under legalized and carefully monitored conditions. Athletes are buying drugs from people like Victor Conte, who has no pharmaceutical or sports medicine credentials, and they are shooting up in locker room stalls. If PEDs were used properly and developed in reputable labs by top scientists, perhaps the risks of PEDs would be much lower. Perhaps PEDs could be developed that have very little risk and enormous benefits. These are serious questions for the scientists to figure out" (Ryan). People are more concerned with the health risk that come along with steroids but, also they don’t understand athletes to put themselves at risk by just stepping into the playing field. “Concussions, a line drive to the face in baseball, and illegal hits are all part of the game and players know what they could face. If performance enhancers were made legal, then they could be safely distributed and regulated so that players aren’t forced to rely on shady back alley transactions for untested drugs” (Smith). Athletes will always use steroids and drugs no matter what the rules are; legalizing these certain drugs