Essay on Why Its Time to Legalize Steroids in Professional Sports By Chris Smith

In his article, Why Its Time to Legalize Steroids in Professional Sports, Chris Smith (2012) ponders on the importance of finally making use of Performance Enhancement Drugs in professional sporting legal. He bases his idea on the fact that almost every athlete has adopted the doping trend with the aim of ensuring that they come top of the pack. Smith argues that sports are no longer what it used to be decades ago as it is now marred by allegations of unfair competition and suppression of the real human athletic ability (Smith, 2012). He, in fact, attributes the declining standards of sports which used to be regarded highly in the 1990s to the taint that the doping scourge has painted professional sports with. I mostly agree with Smiths conclusion that based on such facts, the time is finally ripe to make the use of performance enhancing drugs legal in professional sports.

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I agree with Smiths idea that use of performance enhancers in sports, or lack of, has over time created an unfair competing ground for athletes. Measures adopted by various anti-doping agencies to curb doping in sports seem not to be fruitful as athletes always find a way of supercharging themselves to the finish line just for the sake of the title that comes along with it (Savulescu, Foddy, & Clayton, 2004). Legalizing doping would thus be a timely undertaking as the ground would be leveled out for all the athletes to compete fairly without worries of the opponents taking advantage of performance enhancers. The author thus propels a very realistic opinion of why not use it all of us if some are using it.

Legalization of steroids would also serve to save the bodies tasked with the responsibilities of handling doping cases the time and resources that they inject into conducting these tests all over the world in vain. The doping issue has become rather contentious to the point that the bodies are not even sure of which substances to classify as performance enhancers and which ones not to. The confusion has acted to the advantage of the athletes who make use of different kinds of enhancers which are yet to be classified as such. Making enhancers legal would thus go a long way towards ensuring that such doping holes are completely sealed since it would then be legal for athletes to use whatever substance they feel necessary to enhance their athletic capability (Latiner, 2005).

Lastly, I agree with Smiths argument that though steroids may pose some dangers to the health of the athletes using them, engaging in extreme sporting activities such as a one-hundred-kilometer decathlon poses even greater risks to these athletes. Steroids have a way of ensuring that the muscles and essentially the body are not pushed to limits considered dangerous for the well-being of the athletes. A considerable number of athletes have lost their lives due to injuries suffered, and this should serve as a wake-up call that enhancers should be allowed to be part of sporting competitions (Savulescu, 2015).

Steroids are not as bad as they are made to appear through perceptions held by most people and efforts should thus be directed towards ensuring that they become part of professional sports. Going forward, sports ought to regain its lost glory through dynamic and paradigm mind shift oriented towards the use of performance enhancement drugs in attempts aimed at making sports more appealing and exciting.

References

Latiner, C. (2005). Steroids and Drug Enhancements in Sports: The Real Problem and the Real Solution. DePaul J. Sports L. & Contemp. Probs., 3, 192. Retrieved from: http://via.library.depaul.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1077&context=jslcp

Savulescu, J. (2015). Why we should legalise performance-enhancing drugs in sport1. Routledge Handbook of Drugs and Sport, 350. Retrieved from: http://www.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/25426/BJSM-_2004-_performan

Savulescu, J., Foddy, B., & Clayton, M. (2004). Why we should allow performance enhancing drugs in sport. British journal of sports medicine, 38(6), 666-670. Retrieved from: http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/38/6/666

Smith, C. (2012). Why It's Time To Legalize Steroids In Professional Sports. Forbes. Com. Retrieved from: http://forbes.com/sites/chrissmith/2012/08/24/why-its-time-to-legalize-steroids-in-professional-sports/#4f85a19flc0d