Smith 1

Garrett Smith
Professor Jizi
UWRT 1103
November 22, 2015
EIP Essay

I conducted research on whether or not athletes should use performance-enhancing drugs

in competition. I wanted to explore this topic because I am going to train athletes for a living
and many of them are going to either use drugs, ask about drugs, or be tempted by drugs.
Athletes have been drawn to steroids for a long time. Look at some of the best athletes, those
who have broken Olympic records or tasted victory in Le Tour de France, and you will see
athletes who were being enhanced by their natural capabilities. The glory and recognition that
one gets from such feats has to feel great. Imagine what goes through the heads of those select
few gifted individuals with the genetic potential to break world records if they just give in and
use drugs. How am I supposed to tell such an athlete that he shouldnt take anything when I
dont even know what is wrong with them? All I ever knew was from rumors and myths, which
are not exactly the best sources of information. If they are actually a good, healthy method for
improving performance, I would be a fool to refuse to help my clients utilize their benefits.
This topic is actually very relevant to every individual who lives in the United States of
America because it questions the governments decisions and checks their power. We are the
land of the free and should care about our freedoms, even those that we dont plan to exercise
often or at all. If performance-enhancing drugs are banned from sports because they are
cheating, then why couldnt I take them for personal use if I so pleased? I am not a

Smith 2
professional athlete so Im not going to be cheating in any competitions. Some would say the
answer is because they are dangerous. Tobacco, alcohol, and motor vehicles have all been
shown to kill massive amounts of people every year, yet somehow they are still perfectly legal
and accepted for use by adults. Pharmaceutical drugs almost always have dangerous side effects
and warnings too. Furthermore, what studies have actually proven that performance-enhancing
drugs are even dangerous in the first place? I think it is clear that once we actually begin to dig
into the issue, there are some questions that nobody can answer while remaining intellectually
honest. Either there is something special about steroids that makes them worse than tobacco, or
we the people are being denied a freedom that we should have the right to practice freely. To
think about the tax dollars being used to imprison the criminals who use steroids for personal
reasons leads many people to anger. There may very well be good reason to outlaw the use of
these drugs for everyone, including non-athletes. My point is simply that if something is to be
illegal in the U.S. and use tax dollars to stop it, then there better be a good reason. Seeing this, I
decided that I want to separate the fact from the fiction and figure out what is the good reason
for banning steroids.
The first thing I noticed when I began my research was that a lot has been said about
performance-enhancing drugs. Most of what has been said is against the use of drugs, typically
talk about the most recent cheater in sports. I had to look a little harder to find information that
actually helped me figure out the stuff that I wanted to know. Richard Worsnop, a researcher,
showed me lots of data about the prevalence of drugs in the professional sports scene. The
interesting takeaway from his article was that drug tests are not as effective as many people
believe they are. Most athletes who use drugs easily get away with it by knowing how to pass
the tests. They makes me question the value of this entire topic. If the drug tests that are

Smith 3
supposed to catch and stop cheaters in sports arent even an effective deterrent, then what is the
point in banning them? A rule holds no power unless there is a means to enforce it.
Christophers Bells interviews with doctors gave me some very important information. There
are doctors who think steroids are dangerous and deadly. On the flip side, there are other doctors
who think they are safe and effective when used in appropriate dosages. That is interesting, but
not nearly as important as the next thing I learned. Nobody can actually study the drugs effects
on the human body because they were made illegal before there was evidence of their danger.
This means that doctors cant actually find out whether they are safe or not because it would be
against the law to do so. Apparently, they were outlawed in 1990 despite the Drug Enforcement
Administration, Food and Drug Administration, and National Institute on Drug Abuse all
opposing the act. The decision was made during a time when there was lots of heated emotion
regarding drugs. Many people were outraged to find out that their athlete heroes werent natural
(the term used to describe someone who has accomplished their feats without the use of drugs).
One man in particular started a huge campaign to stop the use of steroids because he claimed that
they were the reason his son committed suicide. There were many factors that contributed to
their ban, but statistical data about their health risks was not one of those factors.
After all of my research I have concluded that athletes should not use performance
enhancing drugs. There are many stories of people who died because of steroids. Whether the
drugs actually caused their deaths or not is unknown, but it isnt worth the risk in my opinion.
Another reason is that, whether it is right or not, they are illegal and if an athlete somehow makes
a mistake or gets ratted out, like Lance Armstrong, then their career will be officially ended. I
dont think it is wise to do something that could potentially stop someone from doing what they
love, even if it means they have to settle for less than perfect performance. The idea of injecting

Smith 4
a substance into ones bloodstream without knowing its true effects is rather scary to me. If there
is a possibility of losing ones life, it is really not worth it. I think the same could be said about
tobacco.
The information that I gathered will help me in my career when I am posed with difficult
situations and decisions to be made. I have had some time to wrestle with this beast and figure
out how I would choose to answer some possible questions from my athletes. Acknowledging all
of this, I have to say that I was not satisfied with what I discovered. There are still far too many
unknowns about steroids for them to be banned like they are. I would like to see some unbiased
studies conducted to test their actual health effects and risks. It simply isnt right to withhold
something from free people without good reason, and there really isnt any good proven reason
to outlaw steroids at this point in time. If professional sports organizations still wish to rule
against their use, that is entirely up to them. My hope is that the readers of my paper have
become at least a little better at thinking critically about how things are being done in the world
around them. I think it is okay, even healthy, to question the rules set in place by others. That is
the only way to make progress. If we find out that steroids are indeed deadly after studying them
more, we will still be better off for doing so.