Why PEDs should be legal in sports free essay sample

In life we all strive to be the greatest we can, we do anything to reach our maximum potential. As sports fans we pay to see the best athletes perform at their maximum potential. Performance enhancing drugs do just this; help athletes reach their pinnacle. Currently most are not legal in professional sports, but this should change. With performance enhancing drugs legal it would make professional sports far more entertaining, reduce underground and unsafe drug use, give everybody the option to be on a level playing field, along with many other positive benefits. As sports fans, you pay to see the best players compete at their best possible level. With performance enhancing drugs legal it allows all players the ability to compete at their highest level. In 1998, the peak of the steroid era, baseball saw players putting up the best numbers of their lives. Players were throwing harder than ever and hitting more home runs than ever as well. Sammy Sosa of the Cubs hit 66 home runs and Mark McGuire of the Cardinals hit 70 home runs both breaking the single season home run record of 61, which had stood for 37 years before that. This drew in many fans Time Entertainment states, â€Å"America was captivated by the two huge men and the great home-run race†¦McGwire, with forearms the size of a grown mans neck, 17 inches around, was a gate attraction unto himself, a modern wonder of the world† (Torre, and Verducci, 2009, pg. 1). Attendance and interest was at it’s highest it had been in a long while. According to Time Entertainment, â€Å"Attendance jumped 12%, with almost seven and a half million more people paying their way into ballparks. The per-game major league average improved by 4% to 29,054, the best it had been since before the strike hit. The ratings for games televised by Fox improved by 11%t† (Torre, and Verducci pg. 1). The fans loved these huge men out there playing ball. Not to mention how much money it was bringing in, with all the fans coming, more concessions sales and more merchandise was sold. With this correlation of a high number of steroid users causing high fan attendance and large profits for the teams, I’d say performance enhancing drugs are good for sports. As far as the safety of the players there can be a lot said. Many fans say that these drugs have many harmful effects to your body. This isn’t entirely true, while yes steroids and other drugs do cause some health problems; for the most part these claims are exaggerated. There is no sound study that supports the claims that steroids when used properly cause most of the claims against it; like cancer, heart attacks, and death. Though there is another side to the health coin, with the drugs being illegal many players are forced to go to underground, unregulated labs and get in some cases experimental drugs. These cannot possibly be safe if they are not being regulated. With the legalization of them they can better monitor the athletes and help minimize health risks, along with create a more informed user. The athletes can learn from regulated doctors and consultants on what to use instead of trusting a doctor that will break the rules. Along with having a more informed user with safer drugs the player could then make a responsible choice on what to do. It seems silly to tell a grown adult what they can and cannot do to their bodies if they are fully aware of all the risks involved. Many advocates against the use of steroids claim that it causes an unfair advantage or an uneven playing field. Though according to Norman Frost, the Professor and Director of the Medical Ethics Program at the University of Wisconsin, â€Å"There is no coherent argument to support the view that enhancing performance is unfair; if it were, we would ban coaching and training†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Frost, 2005, par. 1), which basically means that it’s just a tool like coaching that helps athletes reach their maximum potential. With them being banned only a few athletes have access to these advantages because most are not willing to take the risk of being caught. So, the ban on steroids and other performance enhancing drugs actually in fact is the causation of an unfair advantage because it gives access to an option that will better a player to only those willing to break the rules. With it available to any player just like other skill improving things it would help any player who wants to do it not just those willing to break the rules. People also say with the numbers being put up by players is unfair to the players who played back before the steroid era. Though players today have to  deal with modern technology, players with specialization, and many other factors. Like Jost states in his article players, â€Å"†¦[have] to face set-up men and closers that hardly existed in Babe Ruths time, when the Babe could hit against a tiring starter in the late innings† (Jost, 2004, par. 6), which also creates an unfair playing field when compared to the old days. Also in sports there is a higher level of talent now a days, with the integration of sports and with players coming from all over the world to play. To say that steroids are the sole reason that there is an unfair advantage is ludicrous because there are many other factors that cause the numbers to climb and be different from those of the past. There also arises a problem with coercion or peer pressure I guess one could say. It is thought that with the legalization of the performance enhancing drugs that many players will feel obligated to take them just to keep up with the opposition. The pressures put on athletes to take the drugs is really no different than the pressure put on by any kind of skill enhancing activity. If another player lifts more than another player and builds more muscle no one says it’s unfair. There are always options out there and no one is going to make you do anything you don’t want to do. Robert Simon, PHD, states, â€Å"One reason for doubting that they do is that it once again appears as if coercion is being used too broadly. One might just as well say†¦that athletes who practice longer hours than others coerce their competitors into practicing longer hours as well† (Simon, 2004). He makes a valid point that even though they are being out done doesn’t necessarily mean that other athletes will do the same to keep up. For another example, some guys are not big on the weight room so the practice other skills, while other players focus solely on strength, it all depends on what an athlete feels is necessary to compete at the level they want. With the drugs as an option it doesn’t mean the athletes should feel they have to do them to still compete, but it probably does mean they’ll have to work harder in other areas to continue to compete at a high level. I think it could only bring out the best in players and drive them to preform to the best of their abilities, which sports are all about. Finally there comes the drug testing, there are many views that drug testing is effective and good for sports. I find those claims to simply be not true. There are so many ways and loopholes through drug tests that the validity of them is hard to trust in most every case. In Jost’s article he claims, â€Å"†¦Testing is expensive — as much as $500 to $1,000 or more per test. Testing is susceptible to error, cover-up or even sabotage. And, testing can be circumvented†(Jost, 2004), which really makes you question why they even bother drug testing in the first place. Players can also obtain others urine, stop using, pay off officials to â€Å"lose† their sample, or many other ingenious ways around the system. Not to mention how long it takes to crack the code of the ever-changing steroids and develop a test that can detect it. By the time a new steroid is able to be detected the users are on to a new drug. In the Jost article it also states, â€Å"As long as theyre banned, there will be people trying to avoid detection, and theyll have to do it underground†¦theyll be using drugs that wont be adequately tested or subject to [federal] oversight†(Jost, 2004). The testing just puts athletes at a higher health risk. The expense and ease to get around the tests just don’t seem to be worth the trouble. With the tests in place it just causes more experimental drugs and athletes being put at higher risks not to mention they are fairly ineffective. Performance enhancing drugs are already a part of sports whether we like it or not. With the legalization of them a lot of good can come to sports in general. There would be a higher fan involvement, which means more money. It would protect the athletes from dealing with underground suppliers and give the players safer drugs to use. Allow all those who wanted to use them to do so with out fear of punishment creating a more level playing field. Finally get rid of useless harmful testing. While most people think performance enhancing drugs are bad for sports, there are many positives that can come from their legalization.