Steroids Affecting Student Athletes

Changing the Game For the Better It’s the bottom of the ninth, the home team’s star player is up to bat, and the team is down by one. With the bases loaded, the hometown hero steps up to the plate. With the aroma of grilled foods flowing through the air, he can hear the ball soaring through the air as he swings his wooden bat as hard as he can, smashing a 400 foot grand slam and winning the game on a walk-off home run. The whole town screams in joy, not knowing that their star player has been using steroids and other drugs daily. With the usage of drugs in high school, including steroids, increasing throughout the nation, schools need to begin drug testing their student athletes. There is a common perception that parents do not want

By drug testing the student athletes in a school, schools could help stop steroid use and protect the students from the harmful effects of steroids. In an article about anabolic steroids, it is quoted that, “Anabolic steroids can affect the hypothalamus and the limbic region of the brain”(Bellum). The hypothalamus is a section of the brain that helps the body maintain homeostasis, and harming this region of your brain could lead to out of control glucose levels, body temperature, and many other issues. On the other hand, the limbic system controls emotions, memory, and arousal, and if this part of the brain is damaged a the person could have bad social problems or worse. As social concerns are high in high school anyway, steroid use just makes this worse. Steroids don’t just harm the emotional part of a student. In another article, a quote by Adler read, “Steroids can have long-lasting and sometimes irreversible side effects on the body. Anabolic steroids have been linked to increased cholesterol, stroke and blood clots, urinary and bowel problems, and problems with the musculoskeletal system”(Steroid Use). High schools, and the student’s parents, need to start protecting their students from these harmful medical effects of steroids. In a report done by CBS News, it

The usage of marijuana is also a problem for student athletes. Many believe that marijuana is harmless, but that is false. In an article about the truth behind marijuana, someone talks about “an 18-year-old patient who had started smoking marijuana several times a day in 10th grade, dropped out of high school, and had been stealing money from his parents”(Jangi). This exemplifies how marijuana can ruin the life of a perfectly healthy student. One day a student could be living life to the fullest, and the next they could be dropped out of school and living on the streets all because of a “harmless” drug. Another article stated that using marijuana could increase a person 's heart rate to 160 beats per minute, and a heart rate is considered high at 100 beats per minute (Bellum). That is an very unhealthy number. If a student athlete’s heart rate was already this high then they went out and played a sport their performance could be really affected and they could be in serious danger of unconsciousness or cardiac arrest. An article discussing the marijuana use between athletes was interviewing an un-named student about the issue of student athletes using marijuana and she proclaimed, "It can have a negative effect on their performance, it can pull them away from sports. If an athlete is using marijuana, they 're not thinking about their future career"(Silvy). While the thought of this statement is helps prove