Athletes are constantly being caught and punished for taking performancing enhancing drugs (PEDs). Since not all the athletes who are juicing get caught, this ultimately makes sports unfair, bringing up the question of whether or not PEDs should or should not be allowed.
Some people feel that PEDs should be allowed because they provide athletes the ability to reach maximum strength and speeds allowing us to see the very limit of humans athletic ability. People want to see pitchers throw faster, hit further and make harder tackles.
But as the athlete’s muscles enhance and their strength increases, it becomes a danger to the human body. Because the drugs allow the muscles to grow faster and become stronger than is natural, it creates a heavy force on the tendons causing them to tear.
Performance Enhancing Drugs can also affect an athlete’s liver, endocrine system and reproductive system functions. The PEDs can also cause tumors to develop in both the liver and kidneys, as well as create heart conditions. These health issues increase because athletes often use more than the recommended dose, they are used with other PEDs and they run the risk of buying counterfeit or tainted drugs.
PEDs will make it so that the best athletes will no longer be the most skilled and talented, but will be determined by which the ones who are taking the best steroids which pushes them to the next level. For instance, Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France seven times before his title was stripped. He was able to win all of these because he was administering drugs to enhance sporting performance which enabled him to go at an abnormal speed without getting as tired.
Because PEDs give athletes an unfair advantage it is a form of cheating. It is unfair to those who are not taking PEDs competing against those who do chose to take them because many of them will not be able to compete at the same level as the ones who are using. For example, is it really fair for those who are not doping to go up against Barry Bonds who was taking PEDs, which helped him to a career total of 762 home runs?
PEDs have also become a problem in eSports. eSports are video games that model real world sports. Players are now taking drugs to help them stay up later and sharpen their focus. The Electronic Sports League (ESL) officials are now having to test for certain PEDs such as Adderall and Ritalin because it has been deemed a form of cheating.
As great as it may seem to see athletes perform at such high levels, PEDs are dangerous for the athletes and their youth fans who may copy the habits of their favorite athletes. They are also a form of cheating which hurts the integrity of sports.
