Should Performance Enhancing Drugs In Sports Be Banned

I strongly believe that the use of performance enhancing drugs in sport should continue to be banned. Performance enhancing drugs are dangerous to not only the athlete that consumes them, but also the people around them. Athletes only use PED’s to have an unfair advantage over other competitors. This ruin’s the integrity of the sport and spoils other athlete’s love of the sport. Just imagine devoting your life to a sport, giving 110% at training every day, but then losing to someone who try’s half as hard as you and wins only because they used PED’s. This obviously violates the spirit of competition, and sportsmanship goes out the window. Also, when an athlete knows that no matter how hard they train they still won’t be in the top 10 for their sport they are somewhat forced to use
drugs. Especially if the bills are piling up and the pressure of winning becomes too much to handle. Not only does one drug user endanger themselves to health risks, but also other competitors.

Using PED’s is a game of Russian Roulette.
PED’s don’t just mean steroids anymore. Anabolic steroids, Androstenedione, Human Growth Hormone (HGH), Erythropoietin, Diuretics and Creatine are the most common performance enhancing drug used. They come in many forms such as an injection from a needle, pill, a powder mix, or even in food. These are readily available on numerous sites online like ‘http://www.steroidsaustralia.com/’ and ‘http://www.steroidsforsaleaustralia.com/’. PED’s made by unprofessional chemists can easily result in an overdose, not to mention the several health risks involved in taking drugs in the first place. All performance enhancing drugs have heath altering effects. Different drugs have different effects on the user’s health, but common problems are; mood swings, liver problems, high blood pressure, stunted growth, strokes, heart problems and more. Yet, both young and experienced athletes still are willing to take the risks to be the best. The desire to be the best, the knowledge that PED’s are the only way to be the best and the fact that drug tests can be fooled so easily like Mike Tyson’s ‘Whizzer’ all have athlete’s screaming for performance enhancing
drugs.
Why do people take PED’s like steroids if the health risks are so huge? The answer is pretty simple, they make you bigger, stronger and faster. This gives you the edge over another athlete who does not take drugs. This is simply unfair to the other competitors. David Fairchild describes cheating as a deliberate, knowing, and voluntary violation of certain constitutive rules in order to gain a competitive advantage. Since using drugs is against the rules and most athletes are administrating the drugs themselves, using drugs can be easily labelled as cheating. Sport should be about who’s naturally better. An athlete’s win or loss should be based upon natural talents that has be honed in training. Speed, skill, endurance and tactical awareness should be acquired by genetics or trainers. Cheaters who use PED’s aren’t using their natural ability they are using foreign products to enhance their performance and make them superior to the other competitors. Sure you could say that the drugs only effect you and not others, but when you have an advantage that no one can legally acquire, this ruins the sport for the other athlete’s and the people watching. When one person cheats at a sport it quickly becomes un-fun and unfair. Using drugs to get an unfair advantage ruins the concept of sportsmanship and the idea of fairness in sport. The reason why we have anti-doping rules and drug tests is to protect the spirit of sport. Even if PED’s had no negative effects on the body it would still be banned if some athlete’s couldn’t use them. Almost always the reason why the athlete cheated was to do with money. Companies pay millions in sponsorships to the best athletes. The better the athlete the better he is getting paid. When the punishments for using PED’s are jokingly minor, athletes with money on their mind don’t think twice about cheating. Take Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather for example, he makes around 100 million per year. He is the highest paid athlete in the world, getting excess of 30 million per fight. If he was found to be taking PED’s what consequences would he face? A two-year suspension? His 5 belts stripped? With 300 million banked he could live comfortably for generations.

Drugs and sport just don’t mix. They can permanently change an athlete’s health and persuade other athletes to take them, give athletes an unfair advantage to those who don’t use PED’s and destroys the spirit of sport. If we don’t enforce stricter drug testing and bigger punishments for people who do cheat, then sport will become a game or Russian Roulette. Besides, is it really you that wins or is it the drug?