Performance enhancing drugs should not be legalized as they have devastating effects on the entirety of all professional sports and athletics in general. Using PEDs is an extremely unfair action to do in sports. Cheating is not only unfair but also drastically reduces the reliability of a sport, ending in competitions essentially revolving around who is able to abuse drugs the most without suffering from severe side effects and ultimately death. Which obviously would be a relatively undesirable outcome.
Sports are made of competing athletes, who dedicate their life to becoming the best at competing in a specific branch of athletics. This outcome is acquired by living an athletic lifestyle, where every single action reflects the primary goal, pushing the body to the extreme natural limits, and becoming the best version of themselves possible. This is the ideology of athletes, and they are required to adhere to it through all struggles. It is the one thing they can count and rely upon, a constant that will always be there. PEDs cause this constant to crumble. If the human limit no longer exists, and under the assistance of drugs people can reach new heights, the original ideology is lost, and the very core of the meaning of sports is gone. Sports is about working for results and being better than your previous self as well as others. This is lost when drug use is introduced. Although improved performance might seem tempting at first, it might even seem like the logical and right path for athletes to take, it is wrong. Is it fair, that some people have advantages over others? No, because after some further consideration, we will realize that using drugs completely removes the aspect of skill and dedication from sports, as it is replaced with the use of drugs. The dangers of using methods such as blood doping, where an athlete injects previously extracted blood into their body before a competition in order to increase performance, are well documented by experts around the world. (Research roundup)
Spectators are a vital part of sports, as they do not only support and cheer athletes on along the track, but they are also a key part of the financing process needed to host events. However, it is largely uninteresting watching athletes compete in competitions where you know for certain they are drugged. Here the only thing worth speculating about is who used what kind of drugs. Therefore, without events and spectators, there is little point in hosting events or having competitions at all. The only remaining reason for this would be for athletes to compare against each other, a small reward for a lot of work. This would likely result in a rapid decline in numbers of both professional athletes and casual players and participants, due to lack of motivation resulting from the nonexistence of an audience. In turn, the likely decrease in physical exercise among the general population due to the lack of motivation and competition could potentially have even more devastating effects. It could result in an increase in diseases, injury and therefore ultimately a decreased life expectancy.
Legalized PEDs, therefore, would have devastating results directly towards the exercise and sports environment, and also to human health and possibly life expectancy, considering the already established importance of physical activity. Often the argument for legalizing PEDs is that everybody uses drugs already, so why not legalize it so that everybody is treated equally? This is, however, a poor approach to the problem as the problem is not that too many people are drugged, but rather that testing is not well enough developed nor effective enough to fight the rise in usage and complexity of PEDs. (Wada-ama.org)
Using PEDs in professional athletics is straight out cowardly and unfair, as it gives you significant advantages over other athletes. However using PEDs in situations where it does not give you an advantage over another person, but rather is used for personal benefit in contexts not related to competitions should be treated in a different manner, as you are cheating to nobody else than yourself and should, therefore, be treated accordingly, namely as abuse of a substance rather than cheating. Some examples of such situations could be non-competitive bodybuilding, non-competitive long-distance running, as well as mountaineering.
Steroids use in professional bodybuilding is as destructive as any other sport. When a sport arrives at a point where everybody that competes at the highest level actively uses drugs, it has reached an extremely dangerous level. The nature of bodybuilding somehow promotes this trend, as the core goal is to accomplish a physique that is extremely large, with extremely low percentage of body fat. These can both be accomplished by using anabolic steroids. Considering this, the danger is quite severe, as anabolic steroids are drugs that directly influence the hormonal balance, and can have severe side effects, including death. Due to the immense health risk associated with drug use in bodybuilding, the professional stage and competitiveness are destructive to the sport, as many athletes die in the process. Using drugs on a non-competitive level for enhanced hypertrophy training, I believe, is up to the individual. Of course, it is still an illegal activity and should be considered accordingly. Ideally, professional bodybuilding would be controlled by drug control, for the primary reason of ensuring safety among the athletes, ensuring natural athletes having healthy competition on a professional level. And athletes on a non-competitive level treat drug abuse as an individual choice, not a necessity. (Steroid temptations)
Bodybuilding specifically, along with other drug-dominated sports such as cycling, should have extremely accurate tests for drug use, with the currently drugged athletes competing in a separate “Non-Natural” group. However, the key is that the main and highest level of the sport is the natural branch, where only non-drugged athletes compete. This branch would ideally have the largest audience, and thereby also the most funding for events, and prizes for winners. This would motivate, athletes to go the drug-free route, as this will be the most rewarding. Yet, the athletes already under influence of PEDs would still have a place in the sport, along with an audience that is interested. (Steroid temptations)
To conclude, I would say that using medicine or drugs in order to enhance performance is an unnecessarily drastic measure to accomplish a selfish and unreasonable goal. However, cheating in professional sports is in my opinion extremely unfair and deserves a punishment for abuse of substances, as well as a punishment for cheating. As I said, legalizing PEDs would have a direct negative impact on the athletic environment, and also put general population in a state of severe imbalance. Therefore, the necessary actions that need to be taken are that testing should be further developed and PEDs remain illegal.
Works Cited
“Effects of Performance-Enhancing Drugs | USADA.” U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), www.usada.org/substances/effects-of-performance-enhancing-drugs/. Accessed 11 May 2017.
Mielke, Myron. “Steroid Temptations, Part 1: Drug Use In Bodybuilding.” Bodybuilding.com, 7 Oct. 2009, www.bodybuilding.com/fun/mielke42.htm. Accessed 11 May 2017.
“Performance-Enhancing drugs in athletics: Research roundup.” Journalist's Resource, 20 Dec. 2016, journalistsresource.org/studies/society/culture/athletic-academic-performance-enhancing-drugs-research-roundup. Accessed 11 May 2017.
“Performance-Enhancing drugs in athletics: Research roundup.” Journalist's Resource, 20 Dec. 2016, journalistsresource.org/studies/society/culture/athletic-academic-performance-enhancing-drugs-research-roundup. Accessed 11 May 2017.
“Performance-Enhancing drugs: Know the risks.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 15 Oct. 2015, www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/performance-enhancing-drugs/art-20046134. Accessed 11 May 2017.
https://www.wada-ama.org/
Modern Language Association 8th edition formatting by BibMe.org.