Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Sports - Why Banned Substances in Sports Should Stay Banned

What exactly are performance-enhancing drugs, and why do many athletes constantly put their careers (and lives) on the line to use them? Performance-enhancing drugs are just that. They are substances that athletes inject, ingest, or inhale to improve their performance on the playing field, with considerably less effort than it would normally take to get to the same level without drugs. Some of the most common drugs used in sports include stimulants and amphetamines such as ephedrine, caffeine, and cocaine. Ephedrine is used to increase blood flow to the muscles as well as enlarge the opening to the lungs. Caffeine, if used in large doses, provides athletes an increased sense of awareness and enhanced motor functions. Cocaine is a very potent natural stimulant and is used in sports for refreshment and relief from fatigue. Narcotic analgesics, and anabolic steroids are some other common performance-enhancing drugs used by athletes. You may have heard of a time or two when a certain athlete lost credibility or respect due to the suspected use of steroids, which is a drug that is well-known for increasing muscle mass and strength in human beings. Unfortunately, most of these drugs come with harmful long-term (and sometimes short-term) side-effects. Another common reason athletes use these drugs is to have the ability to play effectively while sustaining an injury. The problem with that is, while the drugs may numb the pain or give the athlete enough strength to endure the pain throughout the game, they risk further injury by putting unnecessary stress on their injured body part which hinders the healing process. While some may argue that harming themselves by using performance-enhancing drugs is their personal choice, such drugs should be banned from sports because they provide an unfair disadvantage and a harmful environment for athletes who do not use drugs. Some athletes may feel as though they need drugs in order to stay competitive, while others may feel as though it is the only way to get ahead of the competition. Many athletes make this decision despite what their particular sport's rules are regarding the use of certain drugs.

So what do most sports policies say about performance-enhancing drug use? The International Olympic Committee compiled a list of banned substances based on doping classes and doping methods, but the list is not all-inclusive and it is updated frequently based on research. It is the athlete's individual responsibility to make sound judgment as to what substances they should be taking or not. It is up to each individual athlete to continue to check the constantly expanding list to make sure they are not in violation with official policy. Although many people have opposing opinions as to whether or not drugs should be allowed in sports, opinions don't really matter when it comes to the fact that athletes must abide by the rules and regulations that are in place to avoid being reprimanded. The Sports Council also provides an information system to protect athletes from inadvertent use of banned drugs. Once again, it is up to each individual athlete to stay current on this information. Because of the resources that are provided to athletes such as the Sports Council's information system and the banned substance list provided by the International Olympic Committee, they really have no excuse in the event that they happen to get caught using a banned drug. Inadvertent use should not be an issue because it is in fact part of an athlete's job responsibility to be mindful of what they can or cannot take. There are many common work-a-rounds athlete's take when it comes to the inadvertent use of many common drugs. For example, ephedrine is widely used in many traditional household medications. An article from a web-search stated:

Because of [certain ephedrine species used in traditional medical preparations], the claims of abuse of this type of substance can be rather nebulous since athletes have often claimed in the past that they were using the substance as a cure for [the] cold. (Razak, 1996, p. 1)

I personally don't believe athletes should be punished for the inadvertent use of a drug that is commonly used to cure cold symptoms, however, there is really no way of filtering out who is being honest, and who is not. Unfortunately, because of the lack of integrity some athletes have shown in the past, I believe many sports agencies have no choice but to rely on the fact that there are resources available to athletes that state what substances are banned, and react accordingly when athletes are caught with those drugs in their system, regardless of their reason for using them.

So besides the obvious reason of performance-enhancing drug use being against sports policy, why should performance-enhancing drugs be banned? Because these drugs are in fact performance-enhancing, many athletes overlook the fact that most of these drugs are actually bad for you, and come with many harmful side-effects. One of the most common performance-enhancing drugs used in sports, ephedrine, include the following side effects: headache, irritability, restlessness of muscles, nausea, sleeplessness, urinary disturbances, increased heart rate, and vomiting. Over-using caffeine gives athletes similar side-effects. The most common side effect of anabolic steroid use is elevated blood pressure, which is why it is directly linked to heart disease. Another common side effect associated with anabolic steroid use is an increase in aggression, which in some cases may put other athletes in danger, depending on how far the aggression takes the user. So not only does the use of performance-enhancing drugs open up the possibility of compromising the fairness of competitive sports, the use of the wrong drug can not only put the user in danger because of short or long-term side effects, but now we have opened up the possibility that the use of these drugs may indirectly harm other athletes. That alone should be enough to sway anyone's opinion on the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sports. Why should the quarterback for Team-A have an increased chance of personal injury because the linebacker on Team-B decided to take anabolic steroids that made him unnaturally stronger, and more aggressive than he otherwise would have been? There are, however, many ways to look at this issue. Should performance-enhancing drug use be waived on a case-by-case basis for athletes with health issues such as athsma? An article from Technology Review states the following:

Athletes don't always take banned drugs for improper reasons. In 1972, American swimmer Rick DeMont was stripped of the gold medal the had won in the 400-meter freestyle event because he had taken a medicine prescribed for his asthma that contained ephedrine, a banned stimulant. (Voy, 1984, p. 34)

If we are to ask that question, however, we must also ask the question of whether or not athletes with these health problems should even be permitted to play in official competitive sports to begin with. That issue would have to be looked at especially for liability issues, if something were to happen to an athlete with a health condition such as athsma because many sports are very physically demanding in a cardiovascular sense.

All arguments aside, there is no doubt in the fact that performance-enhancing drugs are not only harmful to athletes who use them, but can also be indirectly harmful to other athletes that are competing with the users. There is clear evidence that drugs provide unnatural results in athletes, and therefore take away from the competitive nature of sports. I brought up the point that despite how each individual athlete feels about the use of drugs in sports, as of now, most substances that athletes use to enhance their performance are already banned by official sports agencies. Because of the information system that the Sports Council has provided, athletes, for the most part, no longer have an excuse when it comes to inadvertently using banned drugs. Voy (1984) states that, "Some athletes will always try to bend the rules, and sports physicians cannot keep up to date on the use of every new performance enhancer." (p. 34). This will always be true, but if performance-enhancing drugs in sports were not banned, imagine the overall negative effect it would have on the future of competitive sports. Skill would no longer be judged by individual accomplishment and talent, but rather by what combination of drugs allow the athlete to perform better than the others. As for the athletes who do not take drugs, they would automatically lose their deserved respect because their talent will automatically be ruled out by the assumption that they are using a performance-enhancing substance. Would you want that to be you? Put yourself in an honest, hard-working athlete's shoes. Would you want your career and image to be at risk because of another athlete's irresponsible off-duty activities?

References

Razak, Dzulkifli A. (1996)More on Stimulant Drugs in Sports. In PRN Bulletin and Articles
[Electronic Article]. Retrieved May 02, 2007, via http://www.google.com search for 'common stimulants and amphetamines used in sports':
http://www.prn2.usm.my/mainsite/bulletin/sun/1996/sun28.html

Voy, Robert O. (August-Sept 1984)The science of fair play. (testing for drugs in
athletes). In Technology Review, 87, p34(2). Retrieved April 12, 2007, from Academic OneFile via Thomson Gale:
http://find.galegroup.com/ips/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T003&prodId=IPS
&docId=A3373277&source=gale&userGroupName=uphoenix&version=1.0