PERFORMANCE ENHANCING DRUGS (FOR AND AGAINST)

Against drugs

For drugs

• Athletes who use drugs are breaking the rules and getting an unfair advantage over others. •  these athletes are endangering not only their own health, but also indirectly encouraging youngsters to do the same. • Stronger anti-doping initiatives are considered necessary since they damage the image of sports •  More unannounced, out-of-competition tests should be conducted to reduce the chance that competitors will rid their systems of drugs before being tested. •     new tests should be developed to keep pace with the changing array of drugs that athletes are taking. •     We should protect athletes from harmful drugs and  preserve the spirit of fair play and unaided competition between human beings in their peak of natural fitness. •     Athletes who test positive for drugs /After testing positive for drugs athletes can be stripped of their medals and records / can have their medals taken away  and be suspended from/ banned from all competition for two years on the first offense. / for life •     the use of anabolic steroids is illegal without a prescription, and possession can bring heavy fines and prison terms for users and dealers. •     doped athletes exercise an unfair advantage over their opponents and violating the ideals of sportsmanship •     Anti doping controls are good to deter athletes from using illicit substances with unknown health effects. •     If performance enhancing drugs were permitted in all sports competitions athletes would have to become virtual guinea pigs in order to remain competitive. •     steroids enlarges their prostates to the point where urination is difficult •     Some coaches dope athletes with steroid injections without their consent/ knowledge •     large doses of these drugs can lead to the breakdown of the athletes’ immune system and the end of their careers •     some athletes have been given regular injections of testosterone, a male hormone, without their knowledge and these treatments can  masculinize their physique and voice permanently •     The idea of sport is to compete your natural ability, and drugs are very bad for athletes. The use of performance-enhancing drugs leads to serious health problems, including “steroid rage”, the development of male characteristics in female athletes, heart attacks, and greatly reduced life expectancy. Some drugs are also addictive. •     why should we sacrifice the health of athletes for the sake of public enjoyment? •     Teenage athletes train alongside adult ones and share the same coaches, so many would succumb to the temptation and pressure to use drugs if these were widely available and effectively endorsed by legalization •     Far from creating a level playing field, legalisation would tilt it in favour of those athletes from wealthy countries with advanced medical provision and pharmaceutical industries. Athletes from poorer nations would no longer be able to compete on talent alone. •     The act of encouraging drugs in the sporting business contradicts the values of sportsmanship •     performance enhancing drugs, not only are they illegal, but they are cheating. If they win, It may be from the effect the drug(s) had on the person. This is not fair for the other athletes and it shouldn't be allowed. •     The idea of competiting in sport is that you are using your natural ability. Performance-enhancing drugs are unfair and give athletes an advantage beyond their natural ability. This should not be allowed. •     Drugs are illegal. Athletes are role models. If they use drugs they are breaking the law and setting a bad example. Using illicit drugs are against the law and anyone who breaks this law should be punished severely. •     Many cheats, after being caught out once using drugs, get a second chance and get caught using drugs again. If someone has demonstrated that they're going to cheat with drugs, we might as well stop them before they cheat again. •     If athletes know when tests will be, or the tests are infrequent, athletes could easily get away with using drugs.

•     Freedom of choice. If athletes wish to take drugs in search of improved performances, let them do so. They harm nobody but themselves and should be treated as adults, capable of making rational decisions upon the basis of widely-available information. Even if there are adverse health effects in the long-term, this is also true of both tobacco and boxing, which remain legal. •     This could improve both athlete’s performance and their health, and would be a lot better than having everybody trying whatever additive they can sneak •     Since there is no clear way to distinguish from legitimate and illegitimate artificial aids to performance, they should all be allowed. •     those competitors who don’t take performance-enhancing drugs see themselves as disadvantaged. •     Some drugs can’t be tested for, and in any case, new medical and chemical advances mean that the cheats will always be ahead of the testers. Legalisation would remove this uncertainty and allow everyone to compete openly and fairly. •     it is hypocritical for society to encourage consumers to seek drugs to treat all sorts of ailments and conditions but to disdain drug use for sports. •     the risk to athletes has been overstated and the effort to keep them from using performance-enhancing drugs is bound to fail. •     These drugs enable athletes to transcend the limits of natural ability and reach new levels of competitiveness. •     there is nothing unfair or unnatural about using performance-enhancing drugs. •     drug use is one advantage among many, such as access to superior coaching or training facilities, that athletes may or may not have at their disposal to sharpen their competitive edge. •     all athletes are not starting with the same set of advantages.  Performance-enhancing drugs are simply making up for an athlete’s natural deficiencies or quality of training. •     elite sporting events are so demanding that competing in them virtually necessitates drug use. •     without drugs like EPO, which enhances athletic endurance by boosting the amount of oxygen in the blood, competing in the Tour de France would be nearly impossible. •     it’s impossible to make the top 100 on the ranking list without taking EPO, growth hormone or some of the other stuff.” •     The desire to remain competitive among athletes explains their willingness to use performance-enhancing drugs. •     Better spectacle for spectators. Sport has become a branch of the entertainment business and the public demands “higher, faster, stronger” from athletes. If drug-use allows world records to be continually broken, and makes American Football players bigger and more exciting to watch, why deny the public what they want, especially if the athletes want to give it to them? •     If legal, then drugs can be controlled and monitored by doctors, making them much safer. •     Legalisation allows more information to become available and open medical supervision will avoid many of the health problems currently associated with performance-enhancing drugs. •     Some athletes have come out and said they feel like targets from drug testers, particularly successful athletes. Getting tested up to twice a day is too much, unnecessary and can get to a point where it’s a violation of privacy.