Essay On Drugs In Sports

When watching someone participate in any sport, the audience thinks about how much effort was put into practicing, and not what the player smoked to gain their superhuman stamina. In sports, the competitors need to practice to become better, not default to who has the money to buy the best drugs. Performance enhancing drugs may help during a couple of games, but it’s not worth putting so many lives at risk. Forest Tennant JR., who is an NFL drug adviser, has estimated that half of all professional athletes have been exposed to drugs in their careers.
Recreational drugs are taken by athletes, not for performance enhancement, but for the purpose of enjoying themselves. As harmless as this sounds, people easily become dependent on these substances.
Not only is this a form of cheating, but an illegal form of cheating. The Anti-Drug Abuse act prohibited the use and distribution of steroids for anything other than medical prescriptions. After this act was enforced, more and more similar acts against drug use were passed. Now in sports, athletes have been watched closer than ever before, but witnessing doesn’t always make a difference in court. A West German study has discovered that smoking three cigarettes in a time period of half an hour, there is about a 15% decline in athletic performance. If this happens in the first half hour, what could happen in a sports season? This leads to not only the death of careers, but the deaths of athletic role models. The same role models younger athletes base themselves upon. Studies have shown that the amount of young athletes using drugs has increased. Not only this, but more and more different drugs have been introduced to them. Ergogenic drugs used today include many different steroids, growth hormones, creatine, and ephedra alkaloids. Athletes are beginning to have a “head start” on the types of drugs that should be used. Children are being exposed to drugs, and begin to use them as early as their middle school years. Although these drugs may actually be prescribed for some athletes, there is a fine line between prescription and street