Doping is basically the use of performance-enhancing drugs and it's funny how I never knew that's the term for it until today, which means those drugs are informally called dope. I only knew one meaning of dope before now, which just means "cool", For example; that guy is dope. Anyway, today we are going to talk about the other meaning of dope and its use in sports. We have often come across stories of athletes getting caught using drugs to gain an unfair advantage in sports and they always get penalized for it, but can be so wrong with just a little performance-enhancing drugs, right?
Many sports organizations have very strict rules against doping and the various reasons for this are to maintain a level playing field, preserve the integrity of sports and lastly, protect the health of athletes. To me, the most important reason here is to maintain a level playing field because when it comes to the health of athletes, those people aren't babies and very well know the implications of those drugs but still go ahead to take them. Now comes the main question; if the negative side effects from using those drugs are minimal or even zero, should the restrictions be lifted?
The short answer is no, and I already gave a glimpse of why I said so in the paragraph above but I will talk more about it. The core essence of sports lies in the natural abilities of athletes and using drugs defeats these values. Look at it this way; imagine if everyone playing football uses drugs that are able to drastically increase their abilities, and now everyone is on the same level as Ronaldo and Messi, will it still be exciting? At first, it will look very exciting and interesting, but what happens after a year? Or 2 years? What about 5 years later?
It's basically the same as using cheats in video games. I'm a gamer who has used a lot of cheats and modifications in a lot of games and it was very exciting at first because you can suddenly do everything in the game but later on, it becomes very boring because of that same reason; you can suddenly do everything in the game! There is nothing new to look forward to, just the same thing over and over again. That's how it also be when drugs are allowed in sports as that is also the same as cheating in video games. The only difference will be who can use the best drugs and get a higher enhancement, and there lies another problem.
This other problem lies in the fact that removing restrictions on doping will cause another type of competition; who can get the best drugs. This will also lead to a lot of pressure on those who don't want to take these drugs as they will start considering taking them just to stay competitive. Also, a lot of demand will arise for these drugs and if you know the laws of economics, then you will know that higher demand for those drugs will lead to a higher price, even more expensive than they already are. This will create yet another problem; a gap between poor and rich athletes.
Wealthy athletes can easily get those drugs but someone still getting their footing in sports and not having a lot of money yet won't be able to, now it will be a matter of hard work versus expensive performance-enhancement drugs. So, the best thing to do is just to ban the use of drugs, as it makes sure that everyone, both rich and poor is on the same level playing field. What then matters is your hard work and natural talents, which to me is fair since you can work on those. Also, sports will continue to be interesting as there will always be something exciting to see, compared to if everyone is high on drugs and already surpassing their limits.
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