Steroids In Sports Research Paper

Drugs are a big issue in the sports industry. Many athletes will take performance-enhancing drugs, such as steroids, to help them play better. These types of drugs should not be allowed because it gives the player a greater advantage over other players who are playing with their natural ability. This issue could be solved if there was monthly drug testing and if the drug was not so easy to get ahold of. Many major league baseball players are getting caught using performance-enhancing drugs. Mostly power hitters and pitchers will use these steroids. Performance-enhancing drugs have been around for quite awhile. The first use of performance-enhancing drugs can be traced back to the eighth century BC Greek Olympics where they would eat sheep

Steroids can cause many health issues, “including “steroid rage,” the development of male characteristics in female athletes, heart attacks, and greatly reduced life expectancy (The Database Book. 2009).” Steroids could also ban you from playing ever again. The first time a player is tested positive they are put on an eighty game suspension, second positive test will put the player on a 162 game suspension, which is the whole season including postseason, and a third positive test will ban the player from Major League Baseball for life. Steroids also give the player an unfair advantage over other players who are playing with their natural ability. “The sport badly needs to restore the public’s confidence in the purity of competition. A step in this direction is the new drug testing program that was negotiated and approved by the owners and players for the 2005 season. It is far more comprehensive, intrusive, and punitive than the 2002 program that it replaced. Time will tell whether the new program will rid the sport of the blight which allows juiced-up players to achieve phony records that overshadow authentic accomplishments (Staudohar. 2005).” All players work hard everyday, but the ones who are taking steroids to get ahead faster are just cheating themselves. Although, there could be a brighter side to steroid use. If a player is taking steroids to become a power hitter, they could be

Steroids should only be used for medical reasons and not for better performance. I cannot seem to understand why athletes would take any kind of drug without medical advice or take any drug with so many hazardous side effects. There are reasons why people do what they do, but after researching performance enhancing drugs, I would not think of any reason to use such a drug with so many ill side effects. In my opinion, if you do not have the natural ability and have to rely on a performance-enhancing type of drug, you should not be playing. Drug testing would be the best idea, but it is still not 100% on results quite yet. Hopefully soon they will get drug test that will be able to pick up all types of performance-enhancing drugs. Steroids will continue to be a big issue in the sports industry. These types of drugs should not be allowed because it gives the player a greater advantage over other players who are playing with their natural ability. Many players will take steroids to help them play better. This issue could be solved if steroids were not so easy to get ahold of. As a final point, steroids will continue to be an issue in baseball until someone decides to step up and stop