Lyle Alzado, who played with the Cleveland Browns and the L.A. aiders as well as with the Denver Broncos, died in 1992 because the chemicals in steroids caused him to develop brain cancer. Prior to his death, Alzado stated, "I started taking anabolic steroids in 1969 and never stopped. It was addicting, mentally addicting. Now I'm sick, and I'm scared. Ninety percent of the athletes I know are on the stuff." His last words are even more frightening: "My last wish? That no one else ever dies this way." Performance-enhancing drugs must be banned from professional sports. They are ruining lives and undermining the integrity of the game. Drugs are detracting from the true wonders of human physical achievements and athletic attainments, making every win, every victory artificial.
eferences
Anabolic Steroids." ESPN. Sept 6, 2006. etrieved Mar 24, 2007 at http://espn.go.com/special/s/drugsandsports/steroids.html
Anabolic Steroids." MedicineNet.con. etrieved Mar 24, 2007 at http://www.medicinenet.com/anabolic_steroids-oral/article.htm
Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Sports
For most professional athletes, winning is everything. In fact, most professional athletes find the drive to win insatiable. Further, apart from the satisfaction that comes with personal accomplishment, most of those in professional sports are usually under significant pressure to win medals for their countries. It is under such circumstances that professional athletes contend with a fierce desire to use performance-enhancing drugs. However, the use of such drugs carries with itself significant risks. In this text, I explore why performance enhancing drugs are bad in professional sports.
Use of Performance-enhancing Drugs in Professional Sports: A Brief History
Human beings have been known to engage in competitive sports from time immemorial. The competitive nature of professional sports and the presence of significant rewards for winners have always pushed participants to the edge in an attempt to gain a competitive edge over other competitors. Indeed, by his very nature, a human…...
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Works Cited
Mayo Clinic Staff. "Performance-enhancing Drugs: Know the Risks: Are you hoping to gain a competitive edge by taking muscle-building supplements or other performance-enhancing drugs? Learn how these drugs work and how they can affect your health. Mayo Clinic. N.p., 23rd Dec 2010. Web. 10th Dec 2011.
Robinson, Paul. Foundations of Sports Coaching. New York: Taylor and Francis, 2009. Print
Rosen, Daniel M. Dope: A History of Performance Enhancement in Sports from the Nineteenth Century to Today. Westport: ABC-CLIO, 2008. Print.
Performance-Enhancing Drugs and Sports
In the year 1967, a Dr. Gabe Mirkin asked 100 athletes the following: "If I could give you a pill that would make you an Olympic champion -- and also kill you in a year -- would you take it?" (Freudenrich 1). Of the 100 people questioned more than half responded that they would indeed take the pill if given the opportunity despite the risks involved. The issue has only gotten worse in the years that have followed. In the world of sports, people are judged little by how hard they work or how many years they might put into training their bodies for peak physical performance. Instead, all that matters to most people involved in either professional or amateur sports is the end result. The more scores on the board, the better the athlete is considered. This modern age is an extremely competitive one and athletes…...
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Works Cited:
Belson, Ken. "NFL Seeks Congressional Help on Drug Policy." The New York Times. New York, NY. 3 Nov. 2009. Print.
Performance Enhancing Drugs in Sports
To compete and excel is part of human nature. In sporting activities, it has always driven young athletes to perform feats of ever-higher levels of strength, endurance, and speed. Most have achieved glory through relentless effort, physical training, and an iron will to be the best. Unfortunately, the pressure to be the best has also driven some to seek shortcuts to success, mainly through the use of performance enhancing drugs. Most users of drugs in sports justify their act by arguing that everyone is using drugs and it is necessary for them to do so in order to compete. To my mind the use of performance enhancing drugs in sports is simply "cheating" and no amount of "extenuating circumstances" justifies it. Moreover, most such drugs have serious long-term side effects and carry major health risks for the users. Hence, there should be zero tolerance for the…...
Drug Profile
Drug addiction is a human issue that cultivates biological, psychological, and social consequences, among others. The manifestation of addiction itself is characterized by physical dependence, and is defined by the uncontrollable, compulsive urge to seek and use drugs despite harmful repercussions (Fernandez, odriguez & Villa, 2011). Philologically, drug use affects the reward center, where dopamine receptors are over-stimulated. Ultimately, the repetition of drug use is encouraged to achieve the same, heightened, pleasure response (U.S. DHHS, 2007). Psychological responses to drug use may reflect motivations caused by positive pleasure, anxiety, or protection. The bodily effects of drugs often reflect the drug's class: stimulants, depressants, narcotics, hallucinogen, and cannabis. Each class represents various drugs and causes distinct biochemical responses. In addition to illicit drugs, prescription drugs are also highly abused and are categorized within the drug classes. Drug addiction does not discriminate between gender, race, sexual orientation or creed, and its…...
"As a case in point we may take the known fact of the prevalence of reefer and dope addiction in Negro areas. This is essentially explained in terms of poverty, slum living, and broken families, yet it would be easy to show the lack of drug addiction among other ethnic groups where the same conditions apply." Inciardi 248()
Socio-economic effects
Legalizing drugs has been deemed to have many socio-economic effects. A study that was conducted by Jeffrey a. Miron, who was a Harvard economist estimated that by legalizing drugs, this would inject about $76.8 billion in to the U.S. every year. 44.1 billion dollars would come from savings made from the law enforcement measures and 32.7 billion would be from tax revenue. This revenue can be thought to be broken down as follows: 6.7 billion dollars from marijuana, 22.5 billion from heroin and cocaine and the rest from the other minority drugs…...
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References
Blumenson, Eric, and Eva S. Nilsen. How to Construct an Underclass, or How the War on Drugs Became a War on Education. Massachusetts: Drug Policy Forum of Massachusetts, 2002. Print.
Campos, Isaac. "Degeneration and the Origins of Mexico's War on Drugs." Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos 26.2 (2010): 379-408. Print.
Drug Tests and Government Benefits
Recently, there has been discussion regarding government benefits, such as unemployment. This discussion has focused on a new, potential requirement to receive benefits such as welfare: drug testing. People who are applying for benefits like welfare or unemployment would have to be tested for illegal drugs (Alcindor, 2012). If they were found to use drugs, they could be denied benefits. This would seen to make sense, because those who are out of work and needing government assistance should not be spending the money they do receive on illegal drugs or other nefarious activities. However, the American taxpayers are concerned about where the money for the drug tests will come from, and the federal government is already stating that states which pass this drug testing law for benefits will be in violation of federal law. That means these states could lose out on millions of dollars of…...
Drugs and Pregnancy
The habit of taking drugs continually well into the pregnancy stages of a woman has been associated with several effects that the drugs may have on the fetus. There have been several arguments posited by various groups depending on their standpoint about the issue of drug abuse and pregnancy. There have also been attempts, as seen in this session, to classify the drugs into those that do not arm the fetus and those that can in some way hurt the fetus. Having gone through the entire course and getting exposed to numerous materials, there is one thing that stands out clear and I came to understand with insurmountable evidence, the fetus is adversely affected by the drugs that the mother takes. This is true bearing that the fetus depends on the mother for entirely everything for its survival.
The central issues identified during the entire session include the effects…...
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References
Reuter (1994).Setting priorities: budget and program choices for drug control. The University of Chicago Legal Forum, pp. 14S 173.
National Institute on Drug Abuse, (2011). Drug Abuse among Pregnant Women in the U.S.
Drug Crime
Does research evidence suggest that current policies on drugs and crime are still appropriate?
While "tough" policies designed to curb drug use and distribution are attractive politically, and look good on paper, research shows that such policies are no longer appropriate. Instead of responding to drug use as a public health problem, governments like that of the United States and the United Kingdom still regards criminalization as "the sine qua non-of responsible policy-making," (Downes and Morgan, 2007, p. 212). Unfortunately, the criminalization approach happens to also be irresponsible policy making based on emotion rather than fact. Governments with criminalization policies like the United States and Great Britain show a disturbing "state of denial" about the way criminalization creates and enhances organized crime, and may have even exacerbated some types of substance abuse (Downes and Morgan, 2007, p. 212).
Drug use patterns have also changed dramatically, requiring an intelligent shift in public…...
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References
Downes, D. And Morgan, R. (1992, 1997, 2002, and 2007) in M. Maguire, M. Morgan and R. Reiner (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Criminology. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
South, N. (2007) 'Drugs, Alcohol and Crime' in M. Maguire, R. Morgan, and R. Reiner (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Criminology (4th edn). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
One of the most pressing problems with the doping incidents is that punishment is so lax in many arenas. The WADA recommends a two-year ban from the sport, but increasing the time could reduce the number of doping incidents. An athlete might be less likely to turn to performance enhancing drugs of any kind if they knew they could face a ban for life, or a five-year or more ban from their chosen sport. Laws regarding the use of banned substances should be reviewed and updated so they are the same for each sport, and so they increase the culpability of the players involved. Since many of these athletes serve as heroes and role models to the children of the world, they owe it to them to come clean, stay clean, and support stricter enforcement in their specific sports. Lance Armstrong, in his comeback maneuver, could serve as a…...
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References
Editors. "Anti-Doping Expert Promises to Test Armstrong for 'Everything'." ESPN.com. 2008. 26 Sept. 2008.
Economists are concerned with the impact that the sale of drugs has on both individual and economic freedoms and frame their argument from this perspective. Others argue that reliance on the criminal justice system has not produced significant results and that it is time to reframe the argument to focus on the education, prevention, and treatment of drugs.
From the economic perspective, there are apparent differences between government prohibition and legalization of drugs. It has been estimated that total government expenditures devoted to the enforcement of drug laws is well in excess of $26 billion. These figures are also significant in state and local law enforcement agencies with drug related incidents making up one fifth of the total investigative resources and drug enforcement activities. Approximately 25% of the total prison population, municipal, state and federal, is made up of drug law violators. In fact, ten percent of all arrests are…...
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References
Millhorn, M., Monoghan, M., Montero, D., Reyes, M., Roman, T., Tollasken, R., & Walls, B. (2009). North Americans' attitudes toward illegal drugs. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 19(2), 125-141.
Miron, J.A. (2001). The economics of drug prohibition and drug legalization. Social Research, 68(3), 835-855.
National Institute on Drug Abuse (1998). The economic cost of alcohol and drug abuse in the United States. National Institute of Health Publication, 98-4327.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2009, April). National household survey on drug abuse main findings, 1998.
Substance use is frequently associated with child abuse and domestic violence. It also is a leading contributor to marital dissatisfaction, family breakups and rejection of family members. The importance of the family in understanding alcohol and drug use and abuse is underlined by these highly destructive consequences of alcohol and drug dependency on the abuser and the family. (Lala; Straussner; Fewell, 17)
Peer Group plays an important part in resolving the problem as they are able to take the drug or alcohol abuser more into confidence compared to others since most people associate themselves with their respective peer group in terms of habits, tastes and concerns. It has been demonstrated that a drug abuser will definitely abide by a member of the peer group to which he belongs and obey requests of abstinence more than anyone else. Educational system also plays an important role in tackling the prevalence of the…...
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References
Ammerman, Robert T; Ammerman, Peggy J. Ott; Tarter, Ralph E. (1999) "Prevention and Societal Impact of Drug and Alcohol Abuse" Routledge.
What further makes interpretation of results difficult to precisely define quantify is that the amount of drug stores depends on the nature of the drug itself, the duration of the ingestion of the drug, and the composition of the tissue holding the drug and the frequency of use. The greater the incidence of drug use the more permanent the level of toxins and chemicals in tissues throughout the body, and therefore the greater the probability of catching chronic drug users in drug testing. Thea difficult part of using drug tests periodically is the longitudinally there may be peaks and valleys to the incidence of drug abuse. Companies have begun surprise inspections of their workers in the most potentially dangerous occupations including forklift workers, construction workers, airline pilots, and heavy equipment workers.
Despite these shortcomings of tests, the advances made in drug testing technologies are gradually overcoming these obstacles related to…...
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References
Alleyne, B.C., P. Stuart, and R. Copes. (1991) Alcohol and other drug use in occupational fatalities. Journal of occupational medicine (Baltimore) 33(4):496-500, 1991.
Gerber, J.K. And G.S. Yacoubian, Jr. (2002). An assessment of drug testing within the construction industry. Gerber, J.K. And G.S. Yacoubian, Jr. J Drug Education 32(1):53-68
Koch, K. (1998). "Drug Testing." November 20, 1998
Kelly, T.H., R.W. Foltin, and M.W. Fischman. (1991) Effects of alcohol on human behavior: implications for the workplace. Drugs in the workplace: research and evaluation data. Vol. 11, National Institute on Drug Abuse. Rockville, Maryland 1991. pp. 129-146.
One example of the kind of policy change that is being suggested by some in the particular war on Meth is the reduction of the ability of meth makers, especially large scale makers to realize the supplies of a small number of raw materials used to make the drug pseudoephedrine is quaaludes, as this drug was successfully removed from the radar screen by the banning of the chemicals used to make it, and this may be an option for all synthetic drugs.
Reurer 170)
orks Cited
Boulard, Garry. "The Meth Menace: Battling the Fast-Paced Spread of Methamphetamine May Mean Attacking It from Several Fronts." State Legislatures May 2005: 14.
Boyum, David, and Mark A.R. Kleiman. "Breaking the Drug-Crime Link." Public Interest Summer 2003: 19.
Organized Crime." The Columbia Encyclopedia. 6th ed. 2004.
Hanson, Gayle M.B. "Drug Crime Doesn't Pay, or Does It?." Insight on the News 19 June 1995: 16.
Meth's a Global Problem." The Register-Guard…...
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Works Cited
Boulard, Garry. "The Meth Menace: Battling the Fast-Paced Spread of Methamphetamine May Mean Attacking It from Several Fronts." State Legislatures May 2005: 14.
Boyum, David, and Mark A.R. Kleiman. "Breaking the Drug-Crime Link." Public Interest Summer 2003: 19.
Organized Crime." The Columbia Encyclopedia. 6th ed. 2004.
Hanson, Gayle M.B. "Drug Crime Doesn't Pay, or Does It?." Insight on the News 19 June 1995: 16.
Drug addiction is not merely a failure of will or weakness in character, however having this 'brain disease' does not absolve the addict of responsibility for his or her behavior, but it does explain why an addict feels compelled to continue using drugs (Leshner 2001). Environmental cues that surround an individual's initial drug use and development of the addiction, actually become "conditioned" to the drug use and thus are critical to the problem of addiction (Leshner 2001).
Therefore, when those cues are present at a later time, "they elicit anticipation of a drug experience and thus generate tremendous drug craving" (Leshner 2001). This type of cue-induces craving is one of the most frequent causes of drug use relapses, independently of whether drugs are available and even after years of abstinence (Leshner 2001).
In March 2006, it was reported that researchers from Liverpool, England discovered a gene that directly affects the risk…...
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Works Cited
Changeux, Jean-Pierre. (1998 March 22). Drug use and abuse. Daedalus. Retrieved November 06, 2006 from HighBeam Research Library.
Eaves, Lindon J. (2005 July 01). Familial influences on alcohol use in adolescent female twins: testing for genetic and environmental interactions. Journal of Studies on Alcohol. Retrieved November 06, 2006 from HighBeam Research Library.
Goldman, Erik. (2005 July 01). Genetic tests could improve future drug abuse treatment. Family Practice News. Retrieved November 06, 2006 from HighBeam Research Library.
Heroin Addiction Cuts Across All Social Boundaries, Caron Foundation Study Reports.
1. The history and evolution of steroid laws in the United States 2. The impact of steroid laws on the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sports 3. The controversy surrounding the legality and ethics of steroid use 4. The role of government regulation in preventing steroid abuse 5. The influence of media and public perception on steroid laws 6. The debate over criminalizing steroid possession and distribution 7. The effectiveness of drug testing and enforcement measures in deterring steroid use 8. The implications of international differences in steroid laws 9. The potential benefits and drawbacks of legalizing steroids for personal use 10. The intersection of gender, race, and socio-economic....
1. The role of sports medicine professionals in preventing and treating sports-related injuries 2. The effectiveness of various rehabilitation techniques in sports medicine 3. The impact of nutrition and hydration on athletic performance and recovery 4. The use of technology and advanced imaging in diagnosing and treating sports injuries 5. The psychological aspects of recovering from a sports injury and returning to play 6. The growing field of sports performance enhancement and its implications for athletes and sports medicine professionals 7. The importance of proper biomechanics and movement patterns in preventing injuries in sports 8. The role of sports medicine in promoting overall health and wellness in....
1. The Impact of Social Media on Mental Health: Should stricter regulations be imposed?
2. The Death Penalty: Is it an effective deterrent or a violation of human rights?
3. The Relationship between Climate Change and Human Activities: Is there enough evidence to support the link?
4. Universal Healthcare: Is it a viable solution to the healthcare crisis?
5. The Role of Technology in Education: Does it enhance or hinder the learning experience?
6. Animal Testing: Is it justifiable for the advancement of medical research?
7. The Use of Performance Enhancing Drugs in Sports: Should they be allowed or banned?
8. Gun Control: Striking a balance between....
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