Drug Use By 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.

Is doing drugs to enhance one's muscles worth the health risks it might cause? Why would anyone want to give themselves a bad reputation? Who would want to be known for cheating in sports? Although some people believe drug testing is an invasion of privacy, it may just save the athletes from injury. Athletes should be drug tested. Using steroids while playing a sport is counted as cheating, as their improvement comes from drugs. Athletes doing drugs not only gives them, but the team too a bad reputation. Drugs it could affect their long-term health.

Taking Performance Enhancing Drugs makes the athletes phony and doesn’t show true skill and talent. Rather it shows that the athletes taking them don’t believe in themselves and need to have that extra boost in order to show the sporting world what they are “truly” capable of. PEDs should be banned from sports with a no tolerance policy. The consequences should be stricter and the athlete should be banned from the sport for life so that there will be less athletes to take the PEDs for years to

Athletes should take drug tests because they might be cheating in their games and competitions. They should take their tests at least once every month and one before they compete in a game to make sure it's fair for everyone. Throughout the years, there have been cases in which the athlete uses drugs right before entering a competition like the Olympics. An African-American woman who was competing in the Olympics used drugs to get an advantage from all the other athletes, and she won the gold medal all the time. Once she was about to retire, she confessed that she was using drugs the whole time and was stripped of all of her gold medals that she won while using her drugs. If she actually tried to win the medal fairly, she could've done it

A number of prominent athletes have recently experienced a 'fall from grace,' because of the revelation that they used performance-enhancing drugs. Perhaps the most famous example of this phenomenon is Lance Armstrong. In an advertisement for Nike that his former sponsor now no doubt regrets, Armstrong is shown asking the viewer "what am I on? I'm on my bike, busting my ass six hours a day." Professional cycling is often cited as one of the sports in which doping is most endemic to its subculture, however a number of professional sports have been embroiled in drug scandals. Because of the many revelations about the number of baseball players who used steroids to get their record-breaking statistics, the 1990s are often called the 'steroid' era of baseball. The Olympic track and field star Marian Jones was stripped of her medals, after finally admitting to the use of performance-enhancing drugs (Lardon 2008). "Despite the health risks, and despite the regulating bodies' attempts to eliminate drugs from sport, the use of illegal substances is widely known to be rife. It hardly raises an eyebrow now when some famous athlete fails a dope test" (Savulescu, Foddy, & Clayton 2004).

Drugs in sports is becoming a problem everywhere. “Another 26-year old athlete died of liver cancer after taking a number of different types of steroids over a four year period ” (Drugs and…). This is significant because this shows how dangerous drugs can be. If we have drug testing in schools this student could still be alive and would have stopped drugs before it got bad. The evidence points to the fact that drugs are a major health risk that is very concerning. In some cases taking drugs can even lead to death. In addition, another situation took place that affected a college student named Bob. Bob tried everything to gain weight so he could play football, so he chose to try steroids like everyone else. Steroids got him to play professional football, but horrible things were happening to him. He was having serious health problems. Bob quit drugs and is lucky to be alive (Drugs and…). This connects to the fact that doing drugs is a major

Mark McGwire, a home run hitting machine, was on the verge of being elected into the Hall of Fame. Mark McGwire had the third best record of home runs in a season(70 home runs). Mark McGwire “had hit 50 or more home runs four seasons in a row from 1996 to 1999” (Introduction to Performance-Enhancing Drugs: At Issue). Mark McGwire was on his way to become one of baseballs best hitters. When being nominated in “ 2007, American sportswriters did not elect McGwire to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He received only 128 of the 545 votes cast. Many speculate that sports writers failed to select McGwire due to his connection with baseball's steroid scandal” (Introduction to Performance-Enhancing Drugs: At Issue). All because of being associated with the use of steroids and the steroid scandal, Mark McGwire lost all hope of being elected into the Hall of Fame. Many other athletes have suffered from the same problems. Even though these penalties seem harsh there are still many athletes getting away with drug use. Testing and punishments should be stricter, harsher, and more consistent.

Performance enhancers are very prominent in professional sports today. A lot of players are facing suspensions and other penalties for using them. The sport that gets scrutinized the most for this is Baseball. Many former users in the MLB (or formally the NABBP) have come out saying that they were using these drugs while playing. Some of these players are Jorge Sosa, Antonio Bastardo, and the famous Alex Rodriguez. Although these drugs have been prohibited, players are still finding ways around the tests which is why in some other countries they are legal so that no one player can have an unfair advantage.

Drug testing student athletes have helped lower drug abuse in high school and middle school. According to The National Center of Addiction and Substance Abuse, 15 to 17 percent of student athletes have failed their drug test. People believe that the student athletes should be drug tested before big games and events such as a state tournament. Drug testing needs to go around schools before big events and games to check for play enhancers and drugs, such as steroids.

Testing for performance-enhancing drugs protects student-athletes who play by the rules by being clean (NCAA Drug Testing Program). When all of the players are restricted from steroid use it makes the game fair and allows it to be correctly played. In addition, steroid use has become a supplement for many who simply do not want to put in the work or effort to become a better athlete (Steroids and Football). Furthermore, replacing workouts with drugs isn’t a fair tradeoff for those who do become stronger and a more efficient athlete by strengthening themselves. Everyone should have to play by the rules of the game and respect them. In the 1960s, before drug-testing laws were implemented, football coach Sid Gillman actually gave each player a steroid to improve their performance before they stepped onto the field (Steroids and Football). Obviously now that has changed due to testing years later, but the impact it made on each player and the game continues to show why it is so imperative that drug testing for student-athletes should be

Should high school athletes take drug tests for performance enhancing drugs? The answer is yes. There are many different reason for high school athletes to have to take the tests. Most high school athletes that take these drugs, take them to get better in sports and continue to because they think won't get caught doing this. Most of these athletes might take their love for sports to college, and maybe even the Olympics, which both have their athletes test.

     The last reason why drugs should be banned in sports is because of the many teenagers that are abusing them. According to the National Institutes of Health, a half- million kids under the age of 18 are abusing steroids. It seems that we’re raising a generation of individuals destined to be highly aggressive or severely depressed. Most teenagers do not know the effects that steroids can cause. They lower good cholesterol and raises bad cholesterol. That gives users a better risk

Although some might say that drug use in sports is fine, I would reply that all drug use in sports ether its cocaine, marijuana, or steroids is unacceptable and horrible to be used. The drugs that athletes use are bad for their health and will with no doubt hurt them in the long run. In the 2000 Olympics track star Marion Jones used steroids and admits to it 7 years later. This hurts her in the long run because she was jailed for 6 months for lying to court and deceiving federal investigators. She also got all of her gold, bronze, and silver medals taken away.

According to Dr. Charles E. Yesalis, a professor health and human development at Penn St. University, "drug use among athletes has gone dramatically up in recent years. Athletes also are becoming more venturesome about mixing different types of drugs. One reason is that new drugs keep coming on the market, and some turn out to be of help in giving athletes a competitive edge. Sports officials feel they have no choice but to try to combat drug use in sports with every legitimate weapon at their command. They are motivated in part by concern for athletes' well being. Most performance-enhancing agents have side effects that can pose an immediate or long-range threat to health. But the officials are driven by self-interest too. If the public perceive major sports to be hopelessly drug-ridden, attendance and television viewership is likely to plummet. And thatcould lead to financial ruin for athletes and promoters alike. The monetary stakes are higher today than ever before. Many of the top athletes damned very high salaries, and a select few demand huge additional sums for product endorsement. Pro team owners, meanwhile, are constantly scrambling for more income from broadcasting and other sources to meet their massive payrolls and still turn a profit. A series of drug scandals might well cause media outlets and corporate sponsors

More and more, of our society views winning more important than 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, the drugs of today are caught up in the high stakes competition frenzy. Of this reality, teenage use of performance improved drugs is growing ever more popular. In colleges and in the professional league a lot of people are doing drugs and its ruining their health and life. Also, if some teenagers take performance drugs they are making them better than everyone else giving themselves an advantage over everyone else which is cheating, so why should they get money