Making a Smart Decision on Steroid Use

Steroids have a long-term, negative effect on the human body. These effects range from cardiovascular problems to mental and psychological issues such as rage and anger problems. Steroid use has been linked to increased alcohol consumption, marijuana use, cigarette smoking, and narcotic use (Buckman, Farris & Yusko, 2013). Many athletes may not be aware of the lasting effects steroids can have because all they are worried about is their performance, not their health.

Background: Although people have been using steroids over 50 years, it wasn't until we started seeing headlines about athletes using steroids that it started receiving attention.

More than one million Americans have abused illegal anabolic steroids. Steroids can be taken in four ways, by mouth, injection, nasal sprays, and by skin creams or patches. Steroids increase risk of infection. Sharing needles or using dirty needles or inject steroids creates a risk for diseases such as HIV, AIDS, and hepatitis. Steroid related fatalities occur as a result of suicide, homicide, liver disease, heart attack, and cancer.

Using steroids while playing a sport is counted as cheating. College athletes should be drug tested for using steroids. The stronger the player the more abilities they have over others, causing people to see it as cheating. Let’s take a look at past athletes, that have used steroids, starting with Ben Johnson and Mark McGwire:“...Olympic sprinter Ben Johnson tested positive for the drug and was stripped of his gold medal and world record in the 100 meter” (Ritter 2). According to Ritter, if an athlete is on steroids while playing a

Steroid abuse has become a huge problem in professional sports today. Athletes are now using steroids to gain a competitive edge over their opponents. Also, the athletes are using the steroids to recover quickly from major injuries or surgeries. Many former superstar athletes have been caught taking steroids during the season and offseason.

In 1990 Congress passed the Anabolic Steroids Control Act, but didn’t say how the offenders would be caught. “The next year MLB Commissioner Fay Vincent made it clear in a memo that this was very much relevant to baseball.”(Rymer) The memo read as follows: “The possession, sale or use of any illegal drug or controlled substance by Major League players and personnel is strictly prohibited. Major League players or personnel involved in the possession, sale or use of any illegal drug or controlled substance are subject to discipline by the Commissioner and risk permanent expulsion from the game… This prohibition applies to all illegal drugs and controlled substances, including steroids or prescription drugs for which the individual in possession of the drug does not have a prescription.”(ESPN) Every player who

Athletes that are in sports should not be allowed to consume steroids. Or if they are consuming steroids they should not be allowed to play sports. There are many unfair advantages of athletes that use steroids to make gain in a game they love to play. First, the use of steroids is cheating and it violates the rules and contracts athletes have agreed to. A player uses steroids to enhance his or her performance is illegal, so when a player uses them they are cheating. For example; Cheating is monitored today in sports by the use of referees or umpires. Referees and umpires cannot enforce steroid use because they have no way of telling if a player is on steroids or not they cannot be

?When late football player Lyle Alzado contended in 1991 that anabolic steroid abuse caused his inoperable brain lymphoma, which ultimately killed the retired football player?? (Denham 63) Yet athletes continue to disregard warnings of the harmful affects and persist on abusing the illegal substances. I think Barry Bonds current injuries can be blamed on his use of designer steroids. This just goes to show that he had his time to shine in breaking many professional baseball records but now he is paying the price for the abuse of steroids. The journal of the American Medical Association has tested many illegal steroids and has found that they give you mass results like all athletes look for in using steroids; however steroids do cause adverse effects such as breast enlargement, heart disease, and cancer. (Denham 64) A group of athletic trainers were brought together and began a 6 to 18 week study of the affects of steroids on several athletes; at the end of the study they came up with result of massive gains in strength but there were signs of cardiovascular disease developing in most of the athletes. (Hartgens 5) Most athletes have knowledge of these side effects. Nearly all the side effects are printed on every bottle of illegal substances athletes buy, yet they continue to abuse steroids. Athletes know of these effects but they continue to use steroids, they get the results in strength that they are looking for but eventually all

Abstract:  With the increase of competition has also come the need to become bigger and stronger than the opponent.  The use of steroids among athletes has caused the focus of the game to change.  No longer does an athlete want to win by doing their best, but they want to become bigger and have an advantage over the opponent.  Ultimately, all athletes feel that they need to use performance-enhancing drugs to compete at the same level. Despite all of the warnings and information on performance-enhancing drugs, athletes continue to use them and overlook the potential health risks associated with steroids.

Now, athletes can be fined up to $1 million if they test positive for steroids (“Use of Steroids in Olympic Sports”).

“…medical researchers believe that between 1 and 3 million youths and adults have taken anabolic steroids in one form or another specifically to enhance their looks or athletic performances,” stated Nuwer (Nuwer, 61). As astounding as these figures are, the number of performance drug users is steadily increasing. With this progressively increasing numbers, it is projected that millions more will use steroids in the immediate future (Newer, 61). Athletes have always sought an advantage in competition even if ignoring the law and their health if necessary. Using drugs of any sort to facilitate an athlete’s athletic ability should be illegal. The use of performance enhancing drugs is not only detrimental to the user but it also creates an

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.

No league has really found a system in order to keep players in check, and until they do players will continue to consume these harmful drugs. I believe there are two reasons why these leagues haven’t taken many actions for the prevention of steroid use. One of these reasons would be the fans. The fans love big plays whether it be more home runs, more touchdowns, or more dunks, and these drugs allow more of these to happen. Without these drugs, sure there wouldn’t be as many of these big plays, which may, in fact, reduce the fanbase and profits. The second reason is the cost factor. Steroid testing is not a cheap process. In Francine Pearce’s article, she talks about the testing: “Widespread screening has not shown to be cost effective and, therefore should not be encouraged (Pearce 1). This plays a huge role in why leagues aren’t taking action. The whole goal for the leagues is to bring in the highest amount of revenue possible while spending the least amount of money. Why would they spend the money to perform these tests? Positive test results would cause suspensions of some of the world’s “best” performing athletes and disappoint millions of paying supporters. Professional sports executives need to bite the bullet because testing needs to be mandated. We may not see the huge performances of the past, however personally, I would rather see raw hard earned talent. Anything is possible

Professional sports are a competition between the greatest athletes in the world. And when I go to a game, that’s exactly what I expect to see. Sports are entertainment. There is no room for purity and respecting the limits that athletes had in the past. Modern athletes should utilize all the resources that they have available to them. This includes steroids, which enhance an athlete’s performance. After all, performance is what really matters.

Legalizing steroids is dangerous because they are not controllable. Steroids are becoming popular, but no one is stopping to take a look at all the facts about the use of them. Remy an avid steroid user who regrets using steroids suggests, “There is no controlled way to use steroids” (Campbell 3). Everyone’s bodies react different to what steroids can do. Some more dangerous than others. Controlling steroid use is impossible because everyone uses different amounts and even a little can be dangerous. Harrison Pope a professor of psychiatry at Harvard’s McLean Hospital says, “The preliminary data on steroids suggest that long-term use damages the muscle of the heart, significantly increasing the risk of an attack” (Butterworth 2). A continued use of steroids would do damage not only on the heart but the whole body as well. Heart damage is very likely while using steroids. Views of the opposition suggest that they are not worried about the un-controlling factors. Tim Cowlishaw a sports writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette states, “I think if we made everything legal, we would learn eventually which drugs and creams, and heaven forbid, antler sprays actually have benefits and what their risks are” (Cowlishaw 1). If society made steroids legal, controlling amounts would not be imaginable. Anyone could get their hands on it, which could lead to over-use and endangerment of human health.