Persuasive Essay On Steroids

There are many kids throughout the world that play sports. Some of them start playing at a young age like I did. I started playing volleyball, golf and basketball in the third or fourth game and I started playing softball at an even younger age, in kindergarten. I know that a lot of kids look up to many well known sports stars like Steph Curry, Tom Brady, Serena Williams and Ronda Rousey. The kids that look up to these stars want to have the same skills as them like, being able to shoot threes from halfcourt and drain them like Steph or throw touchdown passes like Tom. There are also times where they just want to be as strong as Serena and Ronda but the only way to get to look like them is to use steroids. Steroids are illegal drugs that people can take that will boost the production of testosterone that helps with the growth of muscles, bones and skin (Mihoces, 1). There are some steroids that can be prescribed by a doctor but those are for other medical reasons. When someone is taking steroids, you can see the affects in teens and female because they are producing a lot more testosterone than the body is used to so the targeted areas get activated and that results in growth in muscle and they begin to lose fat (Mihoces, 2). Many teens take steroids to have a better looking body or to
become better suited for the sports they play like football, powerlifting and the weight events in track. Steroids are illegal in the United States because of the long term effects that they can have on someone's body.
The only way that it is legal to get steroids is to get them prescribed by a doctor and it is required to have a written note for it. The people that get prescribed steroids usually have medical conditions like muscle wasting, bone marrow disorders and some pulmonary disorders (Commissioner, 1). Teens and even some adults are getting steroids for other purposes. They are getting them because they are being advertised just as much as tobacco products. Steroids and other muscle enhancers are being advertised on TV and different social medias like Twitter and
Facebook. Teens could also be using steroids because they hear about well known athletes getting in trouble for using them. There used to be a lot of news about baseball players in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. There were many players that were under investigation because they were thought to be using steroids or other illegal substances (Watt, 1) The most known players that were being questioned were Mark McGuire, Barry Bonds, and Sammy Sosa. The biggest problem the Major League was having was if the records that the players broke when they were using the illegal substances were legitimate. In 2007, there was an anonymous drug test to see how many players were using steroids. The test showed that 105 of the players in the MLB were using steroids (Watt, 2). About 10 years ago or so, there were rumors going around about Smith Center guys using steroids or other muscle enhancers because they were good at football for many years. Many people think that they were using illegal drugs because of how they bad they were beating their opponents in football. They won state 5 years in a run from 2004-2008. They also had the longest winning streak in the nation of 79. In 2007, they were playing Plainville in a playoff game and they scored 72 points in the first quarter. That’s a pretty good reason to believe that they were using illegal substances. Smith Center was also good at wrestling at that time. They won state in 2007, 2008, and 2009. I’m not sure if the rumors were actually rumors or not but them begin this good for so long could make people believe that they are true (Smith Center, 1).
There have been many surveys done throughout the United States to see how many teenagers use steroids or other muscle enhancers. There has been an increase in how many use them over the last few years. In 2005, there was a survey done by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and it showed that about 4.8% of U.S. high school students use steroids but those number have been increasing (Nevius, 1). There was also another survey done to see how easily it is to get ahold of steroids and 40% of high school students that said they are very easy to get ahold because there are so many websites and other social medias to get them (Nevius, 2).
Starting in 2005 throughout the state of California, all of the student athletes were required to go to a meeting or they could not play sports during that school year. All of the students have to sign a pledge saying that they will not use any kind of steroids or muscle enhancers. The coaches and even parents have to go to a meeting to learn about steroid use in high school (Nevius, 3). Schools can also make the student athletes take drug tests so that will cut the number of how many kids are using them but those tests can be really expensive. Each test can cost up to $100 and that can add up fast when they start testing in big school districts (Nevius, 4).
There are many long term effects and side effects that steroids can cause someone to have that are taking them. Using steroids too much can mess with the production of hormones. This can cause irritability, baldness and breast development in men and baldness and excess growth of body hair (NIDA, 1). Steroids increase testosterone levels which make it easier to build muscle. The longer you use steroids the worse the effects are. Steroids can lead to different kinds of cancer like heart and liver. They can also cause users to have strokes and heart attacks starting at a young age. Many people experience very oily skin and hair and they also can have really bad acne. If users inject steroids, they probably use unsterile needle that will lead to them getting different types of infections and diseases (NIDA, 2)
I think that we need to teach young athletes about the effects that steroids can have on their bodies. I also think that the meetings that some of the schools have their athletes attend would be a very good thing to start. Schools should make the athletes attend the meetings if they want to be able to play for that school year. If the professional and college levels start taking action so their players do not get in trouble with steroids then maybe high school athletes will not be tempted to use them. We might not be able to stop every athlete from using steroids right now but I think if we could cut the number in half, in a couple years we can stop all athletes at all levels from using steroids and other muscle enhancers.