Steroids Should Be Banned

When people talk about sports, it is common to talk about the teams or athletes or how enjoyable the game was. But what people often overlook is the serious issue of Performance-Enhancing Drugs, or PEDs, that give great athletes an advantage. PEDs are drugs that can give athletes an advantage in a sport and are often abused by many athletes for this reason. However, PEDs can be dangerous because of the harm that it can cause to the athletes that use steroids. Performance-Enhancing Drugs should be banned from sports as it gives athletes an unfair advantage against other athletes, they can cause harmful side effects, and they can lead to health issues.

PEDs should be banned as they give athletes an unfair advantage in sports because of how
they can help with endurance and speed up recovery processes. According to Victor Conte, from Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, “ For the most part, these drugs—meaning the whole category of anabolic steroids—are recovery drugs... Would they be a benefit to an NBA player? Absolutely”. NBA players and many other athletes in different sports that need endurance could benefit from these drugs. Steroids not only help with muscle growth, as NBA players need to be skinnier to have the agility that they have on the court. Conte also says, “ EPO boosts endurance not only by bringing more oxygen to muscles, but also by speeding up removal of metabolic waste, delaying the onset of fatigue”. With all athletes, especially NBA players and Cyclists can go a long time without becoming fatigued. That is a major advantage against athletes that do not dope as they will become tired faster and the dopers will have that advantage over them since they will not become tired as fast as them. PEDs do not just help with endurance though. PEDs also help with recovery processes, especially for older athletes. “The level of these hormones like growth hormone and testosterone begin to decline in the body on average at age 30… So guys getting up in their 30s are not going to recover like they would be in their mid 20s” (Doping Provides an Unfair Advantage). Conte explains that PEDs can have a big effect on recovery and it helps older athletes still compete with younger athletes. Older athletes do not have the same speed of recovery as they did when they were younger, PEDs can help them recover like they did in earlier years. Banning doping will prevent athletes from having an advantage over the athletes that work at the sport instead of using PEDs to get an edge in what they play, as well as preventing the health risks and harm that come with them.

Another reason PEDs should be banned is because they can be dangerous with the side effects that can occur.
The side effects of these steroids can be very dangerous and is a huge issue in sports. Dr. William Mitchell, an orthopedic surgeon and a former contributor to The Encyclopedia of Sports Medicine says, “Rage, depression, severe acne and baldness... Less widely circulated are the more severe repercussions of chronic use, like liver abnormalities and tumors, heart and circulatory impairment, cholesterol risk…”. Mitchell explains that PEDs can cause many harmful side effects that can affect them in a short amount of time as well as later in life. The side effects of PEDs will hurt you throughout the course of using them, and having an advantage in a sport is not worth the dangers of these steroids. Alex Hutchinson, a Canadian runner in the world cross country championships and writes for the newspaper The Globe and Mail says, “You'll have to dope just to get to the professional level, at which point you'll have doctors supervising your red blood cell count and so on. So it's the kids who will be most at risk, forced to dope just to reach the level where doping can be done 'safely.'". If kids decide to use PEDs then they will experience harmful side effects just to get to the professional level. If PEDs continue to be used in sports, more harm will be done. PEDs need to be banned to prevent these side effects so that the athletes can be harm free and not risk anything for a
sport.

Not only do PEDs cause harmful side effects, but they can lead to health issues. PEDs cause many health issues that can lead to death or cause serious harm to the body. Chris Doorly, a writer and editor says, “Topping the list is cardiomyopathy, an enlarging and thickening of muscles in the heart, that weakens heart function over time”. Doorly explains that with the heart’s muscles working so hard, it could lead to the heart becoming weak and possibly leading to heart attacks, which is the next point. “Too much EPO causes the phenomenon known as "blood to mud": as hematocrit gets higher, blood gets thicker. The risk of blood clots, which can lead to stroke or heart attack, increases” (Performance-Enhancing Drugs Are Dangerous). Mitchell not only explains the harm in side effects, but also epoetin alfa, or EPO. EPO could lead to death, so PEDs need to be banned so the possible chance of death can be prevented. “These cyclists were victims of bleeding events: stroke, heart attack, and blood clots in the lungs called pulmonary edemas” (Performance-Enhancing Drugs Are Dangerous). Doorly also explains the health issues that can come with EPO, and these are the issues for just one PED. PEDs need to be banned for not only the side effects but the serious problems of health issues that can come from them.

PEDs can be beneficial in some cases, as athletes can take a lot of hits and it can take time to recover from those hard hits. If PEDs are regulated, this could help those athletes recover and still play but not have an advantage. “Pro athletes, especially in sports such as hockey and football, take a tremendous amount of physical punishment...If these athletes are allowed to use PEDs, under a team or league physician’s care... I have no problem with that” (Stevens: Steroids in pro sports? Maybe it’s time to say ‘yes’). Chris Stevens, a writer for a website explains that it is not necessarily bad if steroids are used under supervision. Steroids can help these athletes recover if they get hurt and it would not be cheating if a physician watched over the use of the steroid. Julian Savulescu, a practical ethics professor says, “It is better to try and regulate doping as athletes like cyclists and sprinters find ways to not be caught”. Savulescu explains that that because trying to stop PEDs have failed, they should be regulated and controlled to lower the rate of doping. PEDs, especially in the Olympics, has been around for a long time and trying to stop it has not worked. Although regulating doping could lower the rates of doping, there would still be athletes using them to their advantage. PEDs need to be stopped and not just regulated to be effective and prevent unfair advantages and harmful issues.

Some people believe that some athletes should also be able to make their own decisions when it comes to PEDs. Athletes know if things are good and bad, and they know that PEDs are bad. Although PEDs can give athletes advantages and issues, it is still the athlete’s choice whether or not they want to use them. According to Stevens, “Athletes can make their own personal decisions and athletes do not have to use steroids if they don't want to”. Stevens explains this concept and also says that athletes that do not agree with using PEDs do not have to use them. Dr. Norman Frost,a director of the bioethics program at the University of Wisconsin at Madison says, “Believe me, I could juice all day and all night, and I’d never be able to hit a major league pitch”. PEDs help athletes enhance their ability, but it does not give them overall ability. Athletes still need to practice and train for their sport, or else they will not do as good. Although it is the athlete’s decision, it is still not good to use PEDs with all the problems that it causes. PEDs need to be banned so all the issues with them can go away and it will make the sports a safer environment.
PEDs have made a huge impact in the sports world, and most of that impact has been negative. PEDs will give athletes that extra advantage over others, but it will not benefit them overall with all the side effects and health issues that have occurred. If PEDs are banned then it will be easier to play the sport and not have to use steroids to meet the high expectations that people set. PEDs only hurt people in the end and that is not good for both the athletes and the sports. If PEDs can be banned, the issues that come with them will be resolved.