Steroid Use

"Going, going, GONE!" Yet another jacked baseball star creams a baseball skyrocketing over the fences. This probably sounds very familiar to you and at this point may even be getting old. Not only all star baseball players like Barry Bonds, but athletes and ordinary people have recently been thrilled with the idea of using steroids to enhance their bodies and performances. Zach Lund, the number one competitor of the 2006 U.S. Olympics Skeleton Team, tested positive for using an illegal drug known as Propecia (an agent of steroids) and was suspended from the games a few months ago.(1) Steroid use has become extremely mainstream and is spreading world wide. So if tons of people are already using steroids, why not make them legal and let people take them at their own risk? This is not the right solution. Unfortunately Dave Moser and Chad Aylor, authors of the essay "Legalizing Steroids", feel differently. With the growing concern of steroid use in the country, we must educate the public about the real dangers of this drug and protect the future of our athletes and the spirit of competition. strong

Many people like Moser and Aylor, athletes, and medical experts feel strongly that steroids should be legalized. They believe that the use of steroids a few times and in moderation is acceptable. Moser and Aylor claim in their writing that the primary reason steroids should be legalized is because there will be less abuse. This is one of the exact same weak reasons provided by people who want to legalize marijuana. "If steroids were legal people would not be able to take as much or buy as much, because of the monitored use by doctors and physicians," claim the authors. Doctors and physicians will not be able to control the rampant amount of steroids throughout the country. At one time, dietary pills could only be obtained if prescribed by a doctor, but now that they are over the counter drugs, it seems that everybody has their hands on these pills. Steroids have the power and ability to spread throughout our country like a plague if they are legalized. Can you imagine what it would have been like if you and your whole little league baseball team was on steroids? It is a ludicrous image. With Americans' body and health conscious lifestyles and drive to be the best in everything, steroids will be high in demand and destroy lives. The abuse of steroids will only increase if legalized because of the competitive nature of our society.

Legalizing steroids would also ruin the world of sports. Some athletes are already playing with the advantages of steroids and their increased size and better performances are quite obvious. The use of steroids to enhance performance takes away sports competition of any semblance of fairness. Moser and Aylor state that, "they (steroids) help increase muscle mass and strength, and permit an athlete to train more intensely, more often, and for longer periods of time." However, the fact of the matter is that it gives athletes an unfair advantage or extra edge over other "clean" athletes. Athletes implicitly agree to the fact that they are going to have a fair contest and steroid use breaks this agreement. Even if there were a safe performance-enhancing drug, if it weren't available to everybody, using it would still constitute as cheating. Successful athletes should rely on practice and hard work to increase their skill, power, speed, and ability. Not only does the use of steroids give an athlete an unfair advantage, but also the perilous side effects hurt them as well as the community as a whole.

The negative effects of steroids are very serious and life threatening. Users do not realize that although the short term results are successful, the long term effects are extremely damaging. Dave Moser and Chad Aylor's claim that by legalizing steroids they will be less abused is a very bold and insupportable statement.