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Performance
Enhancing Drugs Change the Way We Think about Sports
Why the United
States will never beat PEDs in Professional Sports
Drugs
like HGH, Testosterone, and other Androgens have had an incredible
impact upon professional sports. Although it may be honorable to
fight the good fight in regard to keeping Performance Enhancing Drugs
out of sports, we may be better off just giving up on this
insurmountable task.
Performance
Enhancing Drug Use at All Time High
Performance
Enhancing Drugs are becoming so ubiquitous in some sports, it seems
futile to attempt to stem the use of these supplements. In addition
to this, many options, like Human Growth Hormone or IGF-1 Injections,
are completely undetectable if athletes have even the slightest
modicum of sense.
In
the sense of this utter futility, why not just give in and let the
athletes do whatever they feel that they need to do to be the best?
In sports like track and cycling, the use of HGH and other drugs is
so endemic that there is likely no hope of ever completely getting
them out of the sport.
PED
Abusers Incredibly Difficult to Detect
Although
this is highly controversial, there is no reason to get upset about
the decline in the purity of modern athletics. Instead, we should
reconsider what we value within the athletic field. There is
absolutely no way to catch all athletes that choose to abuse
performance enhancers. The science of physiological enhancement is
growing too fast, and those that choose to evade the rules will
always remain miles ahead of those attempting to enforce the rules.
It's just the nature of the cat-and-mouse game being played.
Stricter
Rules May Be Dangerous for Players
The
more rules that get created prohibiting players from attempting
methods of Performance Enhancement that are relatively safe and
well-understood and researched, the more likely that athletes will
attempt to turn to other forms of physical enhancement that may not
be so safe. The evolution of Performance Enhancement is a literal
arms race which is both utterly futile to combat and may actually do
much more harm than good in the long run.
Government
Regulation Has Done Nothing to Stem Steroid Use
Government
intervention in athletics has not stemmed the tide of Performance
Enhancing Drug use, and may have actually expanded the use of these
drugs by inadvertently providing free advertising and also driving
the sale of these drugs underground. Driving these drugs underground
not only makes it more difficult to monitor and study the use of
these pharmaceuticals, but it also put athletes at greater risk,
because the drugs that they seek are no longer guaranteed safe and
effective in the same way.
The
further underground the Performance Enhancement Drug trade is driven,
the more likely that unscrupulous individuals can take advantage of
these athletes that are simply trying to keep up with other
competitors that have easier and more trusted access to such
underground methods of acquiring these drugs.
Another
reason that Performance Enhancing Drug use will never be eradicated
is because almost every Players' Agreement requires players be given
advanced notice prior to all drug testing. This gives players more
than enough time to clear their systems and pass a drug test.
Steroid
Use Progressively Becoming Less Controversial
It
has been over a decade since Marion Jones had her gold medals
stripped after the Sydney Olympics. It has been 25 years since Ben
Johnson had his medals stripped after the 1988 Seoul Olympics. It has
been over a decade since Mark McGuire quit baseball amid concerns
regarding suspicion of PED use. Every time someone gets caught
cheating in this way, the impact is less and less severe.
Look
at the recent deal with Lance Armstrong. Even though the punishment
within the sport was severe: He had all of his Tour de France titles
stripped and he lost the majority of his endorsements, the reaction
among the public has been incredibly tepid. Pretty much everyone
already knew that he was utilizing these drugs for his performance.
They
understood that almost all others at his level had at least dabbled
in these drugs. Although there will always be some people who feel
betrayed, the vast majority of common people look at the Lance
Armstrong case and shrugged their shoulders.
Steroids
Saved Baseball
Although
in the early 2000s, people across America were incensed by the use of
HGH and other Performance Enhancing Drugs by professional baseball
players, the vast majority of players implicated in this era of
scandal have moved on relatively unscathed. Mark McGuire, for
example, still has a career in Major League Baseball in spite of his
use of PEDs, and is currently on the staff of the Los Angeles
Dodgers, acting as their batting coach.
Although
so many were so upset at the time of the Baseball PED scandal, one
thing has become exceedingly clear in the years that have passed. The
Steroid Era of Baseball played an instrumental role in restoring the
sport to national prominence after the MLB strikes of the mid-1990s.
Steroids
and Performance Enhancing Drugs are the primary reason that baseball
became popular again. Without Steroids, baseball might be in the
similar boat as the NHL, floundering for national prominence outside
of a few specific markets.
Human
Growth Hormone Injections Vs. Releasers
In
addition to HGH itself, compounds known as Human Growth Hormone
Releasers are beginning to be experimented with and used with greater
frequency. HGH Releasers are Amino Acid molecules that have been
shown to have the capacity to increase Human Growth Hormone
production.
These
HGH Releasers are very difficult to detect, but they also may be
associated with an increased risk of side-effects. This is because
Growth Hormone Releasers have mutually have the ability to increase
internal HGH Secretion while also having secondary effects throughout
the body.
These
HGH Releasers are not regulated as strictly as HGH, and although they
may actually present a higher risk than Growth Hormone itself, they
can be used with significantly less risk than Human Growth Hormone.
Drug
Testing Dilutes the Athletic Talent Pool
Why
not just let the players utilize Bio-Identical HGH or other
Performance Enhancing Drugs? By allowing athletes to utilize these
drugs as tools, we may actually be protecting the long term health of
many of these players by allowing them to utilize drugs that we have
extensively vetted and researched, rather than forcing them to turn
to experimental Performance Enhancing Drugs that do more harm than
good.
Athletic
commissioners also admit that Performance Enhancing Drugs may be here
to stay. A representative of United States Track and Field named Fred
Finke explains that there have been a number of situations where
competitive runners would actively drop out of competitions in which
it was sprung that they would be subject to drug testing.
Other
competitors would would come up with excuses, claiming that they
experienced injuries which prevent them from competing, so that they
could save face and credibility while also utilizing Performance
Enhancing Drugs. Finke recognizes that it is completely impossible to
uncover all, or even an appreciable number of athletes that choose to
abuse these drugs.
Promote
Full Disclosure: Reward Clean Players
In
an ideal world, perhaps we would prevent athletes from utilizing
these Performance Enhancing Drugs, but, let's be realistic. This new
era of PED use is here to stay and there is nothing that we can
likely do about it. Why not let players choose to utilize these drugs
in exchange for full disclosure? Let the fans clearly see the reality
of the sport. Let them choose the players they truly respect without
the lingering fear that their heroes may be anything but.
Changing
the American stance regarding Performance Enhancing Drugs will also
save the United States Government millions upon millions of dollars
while also freeing up valuable hours and time for our representatives
to discuss more pressing and vital national concerns.
If
you allow these athletes to utilize Performance Enhancing Drugs, you
also open up an incredible avenue of scientific research. By allowing
researchers to study these athletes, you could truly and clearly see
the effects of PED use among the most exceptionally healthy people on
the planet. This data could be invaluable in expanding the body of
research and discovering exactly who may benefit the most from
various medical treatments.
It's
all about honesty and accountability. Let the fans be the ones to
decide. Let the athletes do what they deem necessary to be the best.
By changing the way that we conceptualize Performance Enhancing
Drugs, we can come to a greater sense of balance which both saves
money and preserves the integrity of athletics, while also freeing up
a large amount of money for both Law Enforcement Agencies and the
Federal Government.
Players
Should Be the Judge of Their Health
In
the end, athletes are stewards of their own health and well-being,
and they should be allowed to be responsible for such. Although many
treatments like Human Growth Hormone Replacement Therapy have not
been verified to be safe for use among patients that don't display
symptoms of HGH Deficiency, professional athletes have the right to
decide whether the risks are worth the rewards when they utilize
Performance Enhancing Drugs.
Also,
they have access to some of the best Health Insurance in the world,
and they are forced to keep themselves in impeccable shape. For these
people, more than almost anyone else in the world, the potential
benefits far exceed the costs in the majority of cases.
Highlighting
Clean Players Lets us Truly Reward Good Role Models
By
changing the way we conduct ourselves on the athletic stage, we will
actually be able to highlight those that try to do things the right
way, the clean way. Even though they might not be the best in the
world (and they likely often still will), we can put a spotlight on
these paragons of virtue in a way that we have never been able to do
before.
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