Should Student Athletes Be Drug Tested Essay

All student athletes should be drug tested In today’s day in age, drug use is rising and becoming an increasing problem. The use of drugs by athletes has been a controversial topic for many years and continues to grow. Does the old theory stating that student athletes tend to stay away from drugs and alcohol hold true today? With the many records of student athletes being arrested for alcohol and drug abuse, substance abuse has truly become a problem. The use of performance enhancing drugs is not only unfair to other athletes, but also bad for your health and just overall unsafe. On July 15, 2003, Taylor Dooton took his own life due to his use of steroids. Taylor was a 17-year old, high school athlete from Plano, Texas. With Taylor’s death, his parents, friends, and family formed the Taylor Hooton Foundation to honor his memory, after they became aware of the growing problem among high school …show more content…
Many athletes take doses of anabolic steroids that are much higher than would be prescribed for medical reasons. Anabolic steroids come with several serious side effects as well. In men, they could develop; prominent breasts, baldness, shrunken testicles, infertility, impotence, and prostate gland enlargement. Women may develop; a deeper voice, an enlarged clitoris, increased body hair, baldness, and infrequent or absent periods. Not only do steroids have many physical effects, but they also have several mental and emotional effects. Steroids affect your brain, making the user more aggressive than normal. Other effects that appear are, sleep disturbances, feelings of euphoria, (a feeling or state of intense excitement and happiness), high levels of paranoia, various stages of depression, with some users suffering extreme mood swings, and also changes in their personality. A large number of users become dependant on steroid use, which then can lead to