Performance Enhancing Drugs Should Be Allowed In Professional Sports - Research Paper Example

Performance Enhancing Drugs Should Be Allowed In Professional Sports Introduction When individuals participating in the professional sporting arenas use drugs that are prohibited in order to elevate the level of their performance, they are held responsible for the act of doping by institutes that are indulged in the act of regulating sporting events (Gardiner 273). Use of such drugs is not new to the field of professional sports; such activities even existed nearly hundred years back when Thomas Hick was held responsible for indulging in the act of using PEDs and a ban on him was levied by the International Amateur Athletic Foundation (Lau 15). Even during the period Olympic Games of the period of 1976 the government of East Germany was sued by their own swimming team which participated in the games because the government itself had given them such drugs (Zimniuch 124). Even after several attempts have been made to try to counter the issue of abuse of performance enhancing drugs by professional athletes, the problem has not yet been countered and the regulators continue to fail. This essay will argue that performance enhancing drugs should not be prohibited because use of such drugs cannot be considered as cheating, such drugs do not hamper the spirit of sports, use of such drugs is fair, safe, such drugs are easy to access, prohibition of such drugs leads to increase in demand and athletes are forced to consume such drugs Body Professional athletes are said to be indulged in the act of cheating by consuming performance enhancing drugs and thus they have banned the use of such drugs. The problem is that sporting has become a huge business where millions of dollars are earned by professional athletes for great performance. Secondly, the sanctions levied on these athletes are very low in comparison to the awards for high performance. Thirdly, the enhancement of an athlete’s performance takes place even if these drugs are consumed in limited amount. These three issues when combined together have led to increase in the level of cheating in professional sports and recognizing athletes as cheater for consumption of such drugs is completely wrong. According to the findings of Kjetil Haugen, professional athletes cannot be stopped form participating in consumption of performance enhancing drugs until the level of sanctions are increased and the probability of detecting consumption of such drugs is not increased along with lower amount of rewards for high level performances (Haugen 83). Athletes indulge in such activities because they believe that the benefits of involvement are higher than the costs and in order to stop them from consuming such drugs, the costs need to be increased in order to deter athletes from consuming such drugs. If consumption of performance enhancement drugs is made legal, cheating would not occur in professional sports. Those who are against the use of performance enhancement drugs believe that this activity leads to violation of the spirit of sports. WADA characterizes spirit of sports as Ethics and fair play and even allows individuals with different natural skills and different training to compete against each other. Fair play is already diminished if individuals obtain different quality of training due to differences in their socio economic background and if people with natural talents compete with those who do not have natural talents. This means fair play does not exists as people who are unequal compete against each other. Fair play is not diminished if performance enhancement drugs (PEDs) are made legal because consumption of these drugs increases the performance of all players and not just those who are naturally talented and those who have access to better training. Secondly, WADA characterizes spirit of sports as excellence in performance as well as commitment of athletes. Individuals who are using PEDs are doing so with the objective of attaining better performance level and due to their commitment towards winning (Gardiner 272). This shows that spirit of sports is not compromised as a result of consumption of PEDs. Those against the use of PEDs state that using such drugs is unfair as certain individuals gain a competitive advantage over other athletes who do not indulge in such practices. The truth is that elite level sports is completely unfair and the regulators of this level of sports are already being unfair by allowing people with natural skills and biological conditions to compete against those who lack such natural skills and biological conditions. During the period of 1964, a skier named Eero Macentyranta was able to secure three gold medals due to is natural ability to perform better than other athletes (Olympic 1). It was figured out that the development of red blood cells within this athlete was more than other athletes. Red blood cells are a very important requirement for athletes as these cells carry oxygen to different body muscles. Individuals who have higher number of red blood cells have a better rate of oxygen being carried to their body muscles and they are able to perform better than others. Since individuals who have higher number of red blood cells are allowed to compete in elite sporting events is considered as fair, use of PEDs should even be considered as a fair practice as these PEDs perform serve the same purpose. EPO is a hormone that is natural in nature and can assist in increasing the production levels of red blood cells and EPOs have been used by athletes in prior years for the same purpose (Gardiner 273). Those against use of PEDs even state that if athletes are allowed to use PEDs, sports will become restricted to the athletes who are rich as PEDs are expensive and can only be accessed by those athletes who come from strong socio economic backgrounds. The truth is that sports have become a business where millions of dollars are spent and those who spend more are able to secure more victories and awards as compared to those who spend less and fail to win. For example: According to Guoqi XU during the Olympics of 1988 that were held in the region of Seoul, China spend over 4 billion Yuan within a period of four years on training and other activities and they were able to secure five gold medals (Xu 219). This show that heavy amount of money is being spend by governments in order to increase their probability of winning gold medals in Olympic games and those nations that fail to invest heavily in training even fail to secure gold medals. This even further exhibits that elite sporting events are made for the rich nations to win and poor nations to loose and this is unfair for the poor nation. If doping is made legal, this discrimination will come to an end. This is because PEDs are much in expensive as compared to training sessions that are experienced by athletic teams. Since PEDs are less expensive than training session, more teams and players will be able to access it and will be able to compete with equal ability. Epogen is a PED and only the cost of 1 ml 10,000 units is only $147 at Wal-Mart and 20 units of Epogen is required per KG of body weight to maintain muscles (GoodRx 1 & Arnold 1). This means that a player who weighs 70 kg only consumes 1400 units of epogen per week. PEDs are even banned because they pose a risk to the health of the athletes and can even result in the death of athletes, for example during the athletes who were forced to use PEDs in East Germany during in 1960 experienced health issues such as the female athletes experiencing more than appropriate increase in the number of testosterones. This does not mean that PEDs should be banned, this instead creates awareness of using PEDs in moderate amounts as using moderate quantity of PEDs are not harmful to the health of the athletes and even help in accomplishing the aim of enhancing performance and performing better. Increase in PCV levels have been associated with better performance and athletes use PEDs in order to enhance their level of PCV. Cyclists are found to be safe if their PCV levels rise up to 0.5 and an increase to this level of PCV even enhances the performance of cyclists (Marlin 122). This means that there is no risk to the health of the cyclists if the PCV levels rise up to level of 0.5 and they should be allowed to use PEDs to elevate their level of PCV to 0.5. PCV levels can even rise if excessive amount of training is conducted by athletes and if the aim of the regulators is to ensure that athletes remain healthy, they should ban excessive exercising and training, instead of banning PEDs. PEDs at the elite level of sports are even banned because PEDs harm the growth and development of children who are participating in these sports (Goldberg 333). The reality is that child development is already at stake as they have to undergo heavy amount of training to compete in elite level of sports. Children do not have a choice and say while their training regimes are decided by their parents as well as their coaches. Due to a child’s participation in professional sporting activities, he/she ends up missing various important elements of life that helps him/her develop. For example: while children are involved in heavy training they end up missing their social life at schools and playgrounds. They only end up developing physically, while their cognitive development is hampered and they even end up experiencing ample amount of stress at a very small age due to the expectations and pressure of performance. Similarly, the choice of consuming PEDs is not in the hands of the children themselves, it is rather in the hands of the parents and the coaches. This means that instead of banning PEDs because of the risk they pose to the development of children, regulators should ban involvement of children in elite level of sports and legalize PEDs so others can use them. PDEs should even be legalized for athletes who play at the elite level because prohibition as well as sanctions has failed to serve the purpose of restricting use of PEDs. Prohibition has never been the solution but it has been a cause of elevation in several issues. For example: drugs such as cannabis have been regarded as illegal substance and people are punished for abusing such substance. This has never helped in countering abuse of cannabis; instead it has led to an increase in issues such as increase in the prices of cannabis and the crimes conducted by addicts in order to finance their need of consuming cannabis. Similar issues are associated with bans that have been levied on consumption of PEDs. Since consumption of PEDs is not regulated, athletes have less awareness regarding the appropriate amount of PEDs they should consume to remain unharmed from its negative health effects caused due to excessive consumption. By legalizing PEDs, the regulators can create policies regarding the amount of PEDs that can be consumed by athletes and ensure that athletes remain safe and healthy. Legalization of PEDs will further decrease the price level of PEDs and all athletes will be able to access them which will lead to equality on the playing fields. Demand for performance by fans as well as other stakeholders has led to an increase in consumption of PEDs and this cannot be countered. Conclusion Doping is a term used to consumption of illegal performance enhancing drugs used by athletes to increase their level of performance and such drugs have remained in the society for several years. Regulators need to accept use of PEDs at elite sporting level because PEDs do not pose a threat to the spirit of sports and instead helps in accomplishment of elements of spirit of sports including fair play, commitment and excellence in performance. PEDs should even be legalized because increase the fairness of elite sporting events and PEDs are not harmful if consumed at moderate levels. PEDs are less expensive than training and illegal status of PEDs lead to increase in the problem instead of countering the problem. Probation is not the solution, instead legalization is the solution. Works Cited Arnold, Patrick. "EPO / Epogen Profile." Anabolic Steroids and Performance-Enhancing Drugs by MESO-Rx. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 May 2013. . Eero MANTYRANTA | Olympic Athlete | Grenoble 1968, Innsbruck 1964, Sapporo 1972, Squaw Valley 1960." Olympics | Olympic Medals, Results, Videos, Sports, News | IOC. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 May 2013. . Epogen Prices, Coupons and Information - GoodRx." Prices, Coupons and Information - GoodRx. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 May 2013. . Gardiner, Simon. Sports law. 3rd ed. London: Cavendish Pub., 2006. Print. Goldberg, Ray. Drugs across the spectrum. 6th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2010. Print. Haugen, Kjetil K.. "The Performance-Enhancing Drug Game." Journal of Sports Economics 5.1 (2004): 67-86. Print. Lau, Doretta. Steroids. New York: Rosen Central, 2008. Print. Marlin, David, and K. J. Nankervis. Equine exercise physiology. Oxford: Blackwell Science, 2002. Print. Xu, Guoqi. Olympic dreams China and sports, 1895-2008. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2008. Print. Zimniuch, Fran. Crooked: a history of cheating in sports. Lanham, Md.: Taylor Trade Pub. :, 2009. Print. Read More