Category: Let's talk
earlier this week they interviewed some ex athlete on the radio who reckoned that 75% of professional athletes take some kind of performance enhancing drugs. so .. what do you peeps think, is it time that they just legalised it and let athletes take whatever they want? after all, then no one would be at a disadvantage right?
yeh.
after all it's there lives so they can do what they want.
well that aside, what about competition. after all, how many athletes are stripped of medals every year because of being tested positive for this substance or the other, it puts those athletes at an unfair advantage if they're never caught, and the ones who feel they want to compete honestly and stay clean suffer as a result. if all athletes were allowed to take performance enhancing drugs if they so chose, then those who chose not to would be doing so in the knowledge that the ones who did, would get better results than them.
How far would it go though? At the moment, the illegal status of the drugs limits somewhat what people can take, since the enhancement must be subtle enough to be passed off as natural. Would there be a sudden boom in Pharmasutical progress, developing exclusive drug cocktails to enhance muscle growth/endurance/aerobic capacity? Would it only apply to olympic athletes or would national sports leagues the world over have to relax their drug-testing rules just to keep in the game? I agree that all the hype about high-profile athletes and drugs is irritating, but I think taking the other extreme and legalising everything would just open such a huge can of worms... and that's not even touching the question of pressure on young athletes, or opportunities for athletes from developing countries who may not have access to the now-mainstreamed drugs. Just some thoughts, Erin
How would you regulate this ban when there is nothing more forceful than a pharmecutical company pushing a new drug..the whole thing would just go underground, putting the athletes at greater risk of dying.The only drug free sport is Formula 1 no driver has ever tested positive for drugs...
well I think performance henhancing drugs are good at the begining, but the consequences are not a really good thing...
They should be allowed to take what ever drugs they want to to stimulate their performances. All athletes can gain access to these products, noone is disadvantaged, and noone would be stripped of meddals so the races would have more values, performance enhancing drugs enhance individuals performances so if they all take them, it's better entertainment for us because they all do whatever event they do better.
Feck! You really are a pair of clueless bampots..it is absolutely insane to even suggest, that drug use in sport be openly accepted..thie drugs are seriously damaging to the athletes psychologically and physically..you 2 obviously do not have a bloody clue what you are talking about..
well! i'm not quite sure i'd have worded like that but i can't ever convince myself that allowing everybody to take drugs is the way forward!
i liken it to anagram mania on here actually! some people do it because it is genuinely a mental challenge, them against the word, where as others just want to get as many words as they can, for reasons i can't even pretend to understand, by cheating!
but now put that into an Olympic context. why should i, as somebody who genuinely wants to know how hard and far i can push myself, be forced to take drugs that i don't even want just to stay on a level playing field as everybody else?
i don't doubt for one second that there are a lot of athletes out there that do take drugs in order to enhance performance! but try to remember that there are also a lot of athletes out there who have never touched drugs in there lives! after all its a sorry outlook for man kind if the only way we can stop people from cheating is to make cheating not cheating! lol.
i say keep things as they are, and when cheats are caught out they should be paraded naked round the track at the opening ceremony of the next Olympics as an example to the rest! lol.
I agree with Goblin and Harp. What would even be the point of legalizing/Okaying drugs to be taken for athletic performance? What would be the point of watching the games then if we know they had to cheat just to be good? People should do sports because they like it and find it a challenge, but if they took drugs because they either just didn't want to try or because they thought it'd improve their performance, why should they even be playing? If they can't play, they just can't. Plus, drugs will mess them up physically and mentally by causing dependence, mood changes, organ damage, etc. Yes, it's their bodies, but if I were into watching sports, I'd feel more compassion and support for someone who honestly got injured in a game then someone who died because they chose to take drugs. So I agree things should stay as they are.
Leilani
I just thought of this after I already sent my last post. It's sad that some feel like they have to take drugs because they want so badly to improve themselves, and stupid for coaches who advise it. And about the compassion, the lack of it I'd feel was meant for people who chose to take drugs if they knew the consequences of it, and if it ever were okayed for all to do that.
Leilani