The main reason for the Performance Enhancing Steroids to be outlawed in professional sports is that it gives the athletes an unfair advantage over the opponents in the field. Various sports leagues test the participants for use of steroids and suspend all those found guilty.
Two famous baseball players Melky Cabrera and Bartolo Colon have both faced 50game suspensions for taking steroids before the game play. Cyclist ‘Lance Armstrong’ of seven Tour de France titles has been banned for life to participate in the game for taking it. This effort is definitely noble, but apparently not working. Even after such stiff punishments, the number of cyclists found cheating each year has hardly reduced.
All the inheritors of Tour de France titles abandoned by cyclist Lance Armstrong have been involved in cheating scandals of their own. Major League Baseball suspends many players each season who are caught using outlawed performance enhancing medicines and yet it is not sensible to think them to be only ones cheating.
Performance Enhancing St***ids Legalized in Professional Sports
So, in order to level the code of ethics for all players it might be more functional to think opposite and legalize the use of Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs).
This would not only make the playing field even for all the players but there would also be a higher level of athlete performance.Sports would be more entertaining with pitchers throwing harder, home runs going further, runners testing the maximum limits of human speed and cyclists staying charged for longer.
For professional sports organisations, legalizing PEDs would make their lives easier. They would be free from managing complicated anti-steroid policies. For example, there are various different kinds and intensity of performance enhancers used by the athletes, and it is a tough job for the officials to differentiate a moderate or proper performance enhancer from unlawful steroid use.
The Major League Baseball has a restriction on the use of PEDs like methamphetamine and ephedrine while they do not restrict or limit caffeine use. Players are also restricted from taking human growth hormone, even while it is helpful in recovery from injury. They are only allowed to take muscle building hormones called keratin.
By legalizing PEDs, not only it will help avoid the trouble of deciding which stimulants are ‘too enhancing’ to be permitted, but it also saves the administration from possible embarrassment due to disputed test results as seen several times in the past.
Critics have also argued that steroids can pose serious health risks for the athletes. But, if we consider the fact that all the athletes are already taking risks of their health by walking into the field, cycling on twisted streets or even straddling a bike. If PEDs are made legal, they could be available and distributed ethically and regulated better so that players do not have to rely on unethical transactions for harmful untested steroids. Athletes would continue to take steroids regardless of the rules. Legalizing PEDs would make it easier for athletes to find authorized dealers of tested medicines and keep safe from harmful side-effects.
Conclusion: Use of PEDs in cycling is as old as the sport itself. Even the baseball players have adopted them wherever possible. All players know the rules and yet chose to break them. The existing system of controlling steroid use has been failing to establish a level playing field for the able athletes. If PEDs are legalized, all players would get an even bar and the best performing players would be awarded fairly.
