College Sports Vs. College Athletes

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.

From the worldly perspective, people can be inclined to compromise ethical beliefs for their perceived benefit in doing so. In this case, having a coach ignoring performance enhancing drug use to continue a winning record, and teammates that are “pushing” the use creates tension for a developing athlete. Just because a substance is not yet illegal does not make it “right” to consume; the substance still offers an advantage over those who are not using it. “One hundred percent of community sports instructors…reported that they have a role to play in preventing doping” (Backhouse, 2012, p.170). With this knowledge, it becomes clear that there is a negative connotation associated with using performance enhancing drugs, and for good reason, “94% of community sports instructors indicated that doping should be outlawed due to its negative effects on health” (Backhouse, 2012, p.170).

The use of illegal substances is rapidly increasing in the college sports due to the expansion of supplements used by athletes that are being banned. In a study done, athletes were asked if illicit drugs would negatively impact their performance. Majority of them responded “yes”, their main reasoning being; the effects of illicit drugs were both mental and physically damaging. Illicit drugs come in many forms, but the testing procedures are all the same for any substance. There is almost always a consequence with the use of prohibited substances. Drug testing is appropriate to help ensure the safety of student athletes while they participate in intercollegiate contests. (Krotee, M 555).

College athletes must make sure there body is performing as good as their mind wants to compete. All drugs should be banned in college due to it being a no brainer and they are banned for everyone. There is a controversial subject in which the extra list of “banned substances”, also known as performance enhancing drugs, are banned for college athletes, yet not for everyone of the student body. Every year more and more drugs get added to the list that college athletes can’t use or they will get tested and end up ruining their practice time, game time, and more importantly their career if they drink the wrong protein drink. Athletes should be able to drink whatever supplement they want and not have to be worried about a drug test. It isn’t fair to athletes in college when everyone else gets

Do sport administrations know about performance enhanced drugs? These drugs affect athletes and the sport they’re playing tremendously. About the age of a middle school child compared to an adult can obtain these of drugs. These drugs are life threatening to athlete’s health. The use of performance enhancing drugs promotes that cheating is prohibited. It also provides a bad example for athletes to use. Research shows that these drugs have a negative effect to every sport. Performance enhancing drugs manipulate athletes emotionally and physically through their dangers, promoting cheating and providing bad role models.

Anabolic steroid abuse has become a huge concern among high school athletes. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of athletes using performance enhancing drugs in high school, almost double the number since the 1980's. Student athletes feel that steroids give them a competitive edge that they think they need to boost themselves past competition. Athletes, whether they are young or old, professional or amateur, are always looking to gain an advantage over their opponents to come away with the biggest win, our society views winning as something more important than the game itself. 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 make them winners. Unfortunately, today student athletes are getting caught up in this competition frenzy and because of this, teenage use of performance enhancing drugs is growing to be very popular. At all levels of play, from peewee wrestling to professional football. Successful athletes rely on skill, practice, and hard work to increase their speed, power, and ability. Today, high school and even middle school students are using steroids illegally. The United Institute of Health reported that 2.9% of twelve graders in high school have used anabolic steroids. These drugs may also have been called: roids, juice, gym candy, pumpers, stackers, balls or bulls, arnies, or anabolics. High School students of our

Famed writer Grantland Rice once wrote, “When the great scorer comes to mark against your name. He'll mark not won or lost but how you played the game” (World of quotes, 1). That buoyant attitude of selflessness and heart has slowly diminished throughout the course of time. Now, George Allen’s booming voice, former coach of the Washington Redskins, runs throughout head of America, “Only winners are truly alive. Winning is living. Every time you win, you’re reborn. When you lose, you die a little” (Harris, 67). It is with this frame of mind that athletes are pushed beyond the edge of reason. Although peer pressure and pressure from coaches are central reasons why one may use steroids, most users begin using in order to improve their self image or excel in sports. Ethics, integrity, and legality aside, some athletes will stop at nothing to attain “that extra edge”.

Student-athletes should not be drug tested because it violates the Fourth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. “But providing this ‘alibi’ could pose other dimensions, such as revealing contraceptive use or private medical information” (Kowalski). Drug

Secondly, even when telling the students that the drug test is approaching, it does not decrease the usage of drugs. In those high schools that tested athletes, between the drug test surveys given to students by University of Michigan research investigators, there was roughly a 94 percent agreeance between the students at both of the schools that implement drug testing policies and those who do not, that they had been using drugs within the last year (Swanbrow). Furthermore, the test do not deter students from taking other drugs that will not show up on the test. The University of Michigan research investigators even surveyed experienced marijuana users and asked how the drug test would impact their usage of it and other drugs. The students essentially said that even when knowing the test was coming they were still going to take the drugs and still manage to pass the test by using others urine for example. The data from students surveyed from drug testing and non-drug testing schools stated that their usage of drugs was almost exactly the same, roughly a six percent difference between the two. Therefore, the drug testing programs

In recent years the number of athletes caught using drugs has increased dramatically. The use of a illegal or unprescribed drugs can cause serious problems and unfairness in many ways. Certain drugs can cause harm to the user and the people around the user, most student athletes do not even know what they are putting into their bodies. With all the risks many persons propose student athletes to be drug tested at random.

“After committing to the University of Oklahoma as a ninth-grader, Kyle Hardrick took the court in 2009. It was a dream come true for Hardrick. An injury to his knee put his future and his scholarship on hold. When Hardrick tried to resume his career, he was unable to obtain a medical hardship waiver, something he needed to regain a year of college eligibility. His family was stuck with tuition bills since his scholarship was not renewed. With those bills unpaid, he was unable to get his academic transcripts from Oklahoma to transfer to another school” (For College Scholarship Athletes, Injury Can Spell Financial Disaster). As scholarships are renewed every year, stories like Hardrick’s emerge across the country but can be avoided if the student-athlete had compensation to fall back on.

There are good reasons to allow performance enhancement, to make sport fairer and to narrow the gap between the cheaters and the honest athletes. It would provide a better spectacle, be safer and less coercive” (Foddy) Therefore, with the legalization of PED’s not only would the playing field suddenly be even for all players, it would be at a higher level. Furthermore, athletes on the way up whose entourages don’t yet include savvy physiotherapists and doctors would be less likely to overdose and do themselves harm.

During the 2007-2008 school year, the university Interscholastic league in Texas began one of the largest high school drug testing programs in the country, conducting 10,117 tests that yielded just two positives (0.000198% positive test rate) and four unresolved cases that year. The author argues that drug testing of U.S. High school students for performance-enhancing substance misuse is invasive, expensive, and low number of positive test results do not justify the costs, especially in financially strapped school districts where this money would be better spent on injury prevention for athletes and the education of all students.

When people take drugs on sports teams it’s not so that they can win or so that they can better themselves, it’s so that they are better than everyone else. There are so many side effects when you take drugs for example, when you take drugs, you're not yourself, you can’t focus as much, you get tired and moody when you’re off the drug, and worst of all you’re probably going to get addicted. A study shows that “One major concern is whether or not performance-enhancing drugs pose a health risk. Horror stories of players going into “’roid rage” and suffering horrible, long-term side effects are well known….” Coaches need to drug test their team so that it can save the integrity of the game and save that person's life.

In the past few years the usage of performance enhancing drug and even illicit drugs used by athletes has increased dramatically. The idea of using drugs to gain an edge on your opponent has eventually found its way into high school sports. With the usage of drugs being brought into high school sports, mandatory drug testing should be supported by all schools across the country. High school students may take PED’s because they see athletes at the highest level of competitions using them and succeeding to a high extent at the highest college and professional sports levels, there are mandatory drug test taken by every individual player before the season is started. High school athletes are able to get away with using drugs during their sports season because there is no mandatory drug test that are taken. The drug test is a necessity to keep the playing field even and fair and also to keep the student athletes healthy. Mandatory drug test would be beneficial to the athletes.