Drugs in Sport and Legal Perspective - Essay Example

DRUGS IN SPORT AND LEGAL PERSPECTIVE: HOW INTERNATIONAL AUTHORITY RESPOND TO DRUG ABUSE USE Name Class Date How International Authority Respond To Drug Abuse Use Introduction The drug use in sports has been a major tussle for many years where the athletes are engaging on these drugs. The use of performance enhancing drug is referred to any substance taken by athletes to improve their performance.1 This term where athletes engage on drug performance enhancement typically refers to anabolic steroid use in sports by professional and amateur athletes in sports. Some of the drugs that are being used to enhance performance on sports include diuretics, stimulants and human growth hormone (hGH).2 Since sport is one of the lucrative activity, many sports athletes engages on varieties of drugs so that they can perform exceedingly and win. On the other part there are available legal actions that both athletic and government bodies are using to eradicate the use of drugs in sports.3 Therefore this research paper was able to reveal the when the use of these drugs start and ends, the role international organization should play to avoid drug abuse and legal actions to drug use in sports. When drug use starts and ends According to research, the use of drugs in sports had been used a long time ago and many athletes had continually been using it since then. Most of the adolescent’s athletes are the one who are prone to the use of these drugs in sports since they are easily influenced in winning most of the competitions without reflecting on the legal actions to be observed in the sport arena.4 There has been a ban over the use of drugs in sports which has been referred as the doping process to enhance performance. The perception of the athletes is that the authority will not recognize that they have used those performance enhancement drugs during the sports competitions.5 The end of the use of drugs in sports is not determined yet since some athletes are still engaging on these drugs. Some of these cases had drastically decreased due to strict legal actions organizations had put in place. It has now been rarely used hence it is likely that the use of drugs in sports is heading to extinction. Role of international organization to play to avoid drug abuse International organization should offer assessment programs to athletes periodically. Through assessment, individuals will be identified and be evaluated whereby the athletes’ strengths, problems, weaknesses and needs will be revealed so as to develop a plan that will ensure drug abuse among athletes will not be engaged. Periodically assessing of these athletes will reveal that they are being monitored hence they will not engage on the use of drugs in sports which has been determined illegal.6 Therefore international organizations should be on the forefront to offer assessment programs to athletes since its one of the way to avoid drug abuse in sports. Orientation services is another role international organization should adopt in order to avoid the spread of drug abuse among athletes where engaging of these drugs which enhances performance has been banned.7 Orientation will reveal the athletes’ goals in the sports competition by describing the rules of conduct and infractions that can lead to discharge in the competition or disciplinary measures. Orientation services will ensure that the use of drugs is avoided through establishing a relationship which stipulates the rule the athletes are to observe thus strengthening then not to use drugs.8 International organization should keep reports and records of athletes’ conditions in sports. Charting of the results of treatment, progress notes, writing reports, discharge summaries and other data records will ensure that the daily activities of the athletes are being monitored.9 Therefore it will be difficult for an athlete to engage in the use of drugs that is prohibited in the sports arena as it enhances performance of the athletes. Keeping records is a way of tracking an individual’s way of life hence it will be difficult for them to engage in illegal activities since their lives are being monitored.10 Records will therefore show how an individual conducts themselves hence it will decrease the abuse of drug use. Screening is the strategy process of identifying an unrecognized disease in an individual without any symptoms or signs.11 Screening services are unique since they are conducted in individuals who are apparently in good conditions. Therefore international organization should also offer screening services to all athletes’ in sports activities to ensure they do not engage on performance enhancement drugs. The use of the screening service will therefore decrease the consumption of drugs drastically since athletes will be eliminated in sports competitions.12 Screening services will assist in avoiding spreading of drug abuse in sports activities. Describing two different situations and how law responds to them In the use of performance enhancement drugs in sports activities, it has been faced up with two situational forces that contradict each other. These situations are either to allow the use of performance enhancement drugs in athletes or banning the use of the drugs. Allowable use of drugs in athletes Allowing the use of performance enhancement drugs to be used among athletes is one of the two available situations in the use of drugs in sports. Despite the fact that the use of these drugs by the athletes brings a number of challenges like increased aggressiveness and sexual appetite, sometimes the use of these drugs results to abnormal sexual and criminal behaviour where the athletes are influenced upon.13 This behaviour was given a name as the “Roid Rage” where it is attributed by the use of performance enhancement drugs. The withdrawal from the steroid is also associated with individuals being depressed and in some cases they are committing suicide. Performance enhancement drugs are working out properly with individuals who have undergone medical tests.14 Therefore there is need to sensitize athletes to seek medical consultancy before engaging on the use of the drugs. Despite having these side effects when used appropriately these pose a lot of positive impacts to athletes through energy generation hence both legal and sports bodies should allow the consumption of the drugs.15 On the legal side of the law there are still conflicting ideas about the use of the drugs in sports activities. Though they have proved that the use of enhancement performance drugs can be both legal and illegal at the same time, it depends in the situations the drugs are being taken. The law provides a distinction between human beings and animals where there are two different elements.16 Human sport is different from that of animal because of creativity thus far from being against the spirit of the sport, biological manipulation embodies the human spirit; the capacity to improve our own selves on the basis of judgement and reason.17 Therefore the act of legal judgement on the use of drugs in sport has banned its use since human beings sports is a competition that requires only a combination of genetic potential, training, judgement and psychology but not the inception of drugs.18 The law has therefore abolished the use of drugs in athletes while in sports competitions. Banned use of drugs in athletes Banned use of drugs in athletes who are in sporting activities is the other option situation in the use of drugs in sports. The ability to perform quite well in sports competitions is generated by the ability to deliver oxygen to the muscles.19 The control of an athlete’s performance in aerobic exercise is the one being required in the sporting events compared to the anaerobic exercise gained from the consumption of induced performance drugs while competing. The sporting management have adopted some measures where they can determine the athletes in a competition who have induced drugs to enhance performance.20 There are available procedure that are being followed to screen athletes before or after a sporting competition to determine if they have engaged drugs that enhance their performance in competitions. The legalization of drugs in sports will be fairer and safer for athletes to engage in. Since there was a first official ban on stimulating substances by a sporting organization it ensured that the use of performance enhancing drugs in sporting is not exercise so that a natural energy is revealed in an individual as opposed to inducing performance enhancement drugs.21 The legal perception on this principle where there is a ban on performance enhancement drugs by athletes. The law has revealed that the use of drugs in sporting activities is illegal since it reflects to cheating. Cheating is sport is not a new thing since numerous athlete have induced drugs so as to win in sports competitions but in today’s activities it is becoming more effective.22 Despite the health risks associated with the use of these drugs and regulating bodies’ attempts to eliminate the use of these drugs in sports competitions, the use of this illegal substance is widely known to be a rife. It has hardly raises an eyebrow now whenever a famous athlete fails the dope test.23 The law has therefore emphasized strict consideration of the abolishment of the use of performance enhancement drugs in sporting activities. Controversial issues in the right to privacy to protect sport ethics. Privacy of the sport completion has been violated by the increased legal actions organizations are coming up with. The introduction of the system that requires athletes to give three month notice of their location for one hour each day has interrupted the privacy rights of athletes.24 Many agencies had been confronting increased complaints about the system where athletes are not happy with the introduction of this system. The information that needs to be reported back to create awareness of their where about is registered online and also it can be updated though the use of email or any text message. The controversy arise since the sport organization would like to protect the sport ethics from any illegalised components to happen in the sporting activities while the athletes fear for their daily and closely monitoring of their lives.25 Athletes feel that their privacy lives has been tempered with by the introduction of this system that controls them on a daily basis. The rule shows that each day they have to submit an email or text message revealing their where about for a duration of one hour. On the other hand the sporting management has a right to perform their obligation in protecting the sport ethics from illegal consumption of the performance enhancement drugs that creating a controversy since athlete have a right to their privacy as the system does not guarantee enough freedom.26 The testing is another issue athletes are undergoing in order to participate in sporting competitions. The testing issue amounted to closing loopholes to the out of competition rule and streamlining it across continents and sports.27 When the process of doping became more sophisticated athlete came up with an alternative process where they could dope during the trainings and they would make sure that all the traces of the performance enhancement drugs were gone by the time they turn up for a sporting competition. When the management started to test, many athletes started to check out of the competition so as to avoid being tested since they have undergone the doping process to increase their performance levels during the start of the competitions. Some of the athletes used to disappear for more months only to show up during the competition time.28 Therefore the testing practice carried out to eliminate doped athletes in a competition creates a controversy between the athletes who wants to use performance enhancement drugs in sports with the legal and sporting organization being against the process since it is illegal. The raw conflict is still in existence and it shows the disparities between the athletes and the sporting bodies.29 The cost of aggression that erupts after the athletes had been punished by the legal bodies which are strictly considering of the laws that regulate the use of drugs in the sports competition.30 Once an athlete is under punishment, the aggression that they hold brings about controversial factors that affects the general functioning the athletes is supposed to do. According to sport psychology research the aggression that erupted in an athlete pose a lot of danger whereby there can raise an outbreak of violence between an athlete and the sports management. In one occurrence recorded in a video tape, an athlete threatened to kill one of the sports mangers if he wasn’t traded in a sport competition.31 Many successful athletes are prone to committing suicide and other criminal acts in which the law normally let them walk away with these crimes. Due to aggression the athlete are tempted to undergo all these social evils. The sports can therefore introduce new roles that will subdue the increased cost of aggression among the athletes after being punished for using performance enhancement drugs in sporting activities.32 The controversy comes upon since the sporting organization cannot do anything to eliminate threats as the law also lets athlete to walk away from all these evils. Member protection brings about the controversies in the privacy life an athlete is supposed to live.33 Sports organizations are normally on the forefront to protect their members from any media miss-conception where it can affect the ethics of the sports since athlete are prone to errors. It is therefore the duty of the management to ensure that they protect their athletic members from any media that they will encounter. It is from this situation that the athletes feels their privacy lives had been interfered with by the management who are only monitoring them closely to protect them from media coverage.34 The selection process for the athletes to be chosen for competition also reveals the privacy of a participant since the process needs to be accurate, effective and fairly done where it will reveal the hidden private information which will be shared among the panel engaged in the selection process.35 In order for a considerable selection process the organization needs to develop a selection policy, selection criteria and selection process where they are to be practised in an open area thus bringing a controversy while safeguarding the right to protect sport ethics.36 Conclusion Drug use has been substantially been used by many athletes to enhance their performance while on trainings and competitions. Despite picking up two different reflections on the way to go about in the use of the performance enhancement drugs, athletes have received a rift of consideration in the usage of the drugs. Numerous athletes have encountered some of the critical setbacks after adapting to the use of these enhancement drugs in sporting activities.37 It is therefore advised that there is need for interception from international organizations bodies to ensure strict laws and regulations are set so as to create a safer and fair competitions is achieved. These strict laws will be easy to implement since the determined start period for taking performance enhancement drugs among the athletes is between the adolescent periods where athletes in the age brackets are easily influenced hence the laws will succeed to stop drug abuse. Bibliography Anjela J S, ‘Privacy rights, Gene doping and Ethics: Doping and anti-doping policy in sport’ (2011) Ethical, legal and social perspectives 111. 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Sweeney J, ‘Sportscast: 10 controversial issues confronting the sports industry’ (2007) 41 Futurist journal publication 35. The associated press, Athletes say drug test rule violates right to privacy (The New York Times, 2009). Read More