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Should Sports Enhancing Drugs Or Peds Should Be Allowed? Professional Sports?

Good Essays

RJ Cordeiro
Ingrid Fellows
NS4 Fall
11/4/15
Clean or Not?
Whether or not Performing enhancing drugs or PEDs should be allowed in professional sports is one of the most widely discussed topics amongst fans and league officials. It brings a lot of controversy as well as a lot of upside. Many people argue that there is an unfair advantage amongst “clean” athletes while others say that there are many health benefits given to the athletes taking these drugs. As most things in our society, there are many things that have pros and cons to their use, it is just a matter of opinion and risk one is going to have to take if they are willing to go down that road.
PEDs in sporting events can be dated all the way back to the ancient Greeks. …show more content…

It wasn’t until the late 19th century that drugs were prepared with the intention of helping athletes. French cyclists and lacrosse players would drink a mixture of wine and coca leaf extract to prevent fatigue during their long races and matches and prolong their bodies exertion. In 1904, these PEDs had reached the modern olympics for the first time with mixtures of strychnine, heroin, cocaine, and caffeine used widely by athletes which led to each coach or team developing its own unique secret formula for their athletes. This was common practice until heroin and cocaine became a prescribed medication in the 1920s. In 1958, the FDA approved its first Anabolic steroid for sale in the US. This anabolic steroid called Dianabol was released by Ciba Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Zieglar, The scientist behind Dianabol, noted the success of the Russian weightlifting team due to the use of testosterone in 1954 and began experimenting on US weightlifters. His creation maximized the strength-building properties of testosterone while minimizing the negative health effects from other testosterone boosters. These newly found drugs were just the beginning to the “doping” age that we know of to this day. As bad of a reputation as these performance enhancing drugs may have, there are many reasons to why they are very useful and impactful to one’s career. Many athletes want to be the best and will go the farthest

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