Performance Enhancing Steroids

Steroids: Destroying Professional Sports

Performance-Enhancing Drugs are creating a dark cloud of doubt over professional sports. Steroids, as they commonly called, are substances that allow an athlete to gain an edge over the rest of their competition. Steroids are forms of human testosterone that is artificially made. They can boost the strength of an athlete and give them an unfair advantage over other athletes. There are over 100 known forms of steroids in the U.S. and they can affect users in many different ways. (Drug Enforcement Assoc.)

But what are some of the consequences of steroids?

Well, steroids can bring out a whole lot of problems in a person. Steroids can stunt bone growth and also result in baldness. But users of steroids can become angry and hostile towards other people. This symptom of steroids is called ‘roid rage. ‘Roid rage can occur very suddenly in a user of steroids and can result in violence and rage.

An example of recent roid’ rage occurred with Chris Benoit. He was a professional wrestler in the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment). About a month ago, Benoit was found dead along with his wife and son in their Georgia home. He strangled his wife, Nancy, suffocated his 7-year old son Daniel and then hanged himself. But it was discovered that Benoit had more than 10 times the normal level of testosterone in his body at the times of the killings (CNN). Also, there were steroids and other drugs in his body at the time of the killings. It is well-known that steroids can cause rage, anger and violence and I believe that it was the side effect of steroids (‘roid rage) which caused Chris Benoit to snap.

Steroids can also affect your personal health in a negative way. The use of steroids has been showed to affect your heart in a bad way. Steroids are linked to many heart diseases and also heart attack and stroke. Steroids can also make blood clots which can lead to the clogging of arteries. In addition, steroids can also occur in failure of the kidney and liver.

An example of a recent controversy concerning steroids is in MLB baseball. Barry Bonds, a leftfielder for the San Francisco Giants, is in pursuit of the all-time homerun record in the history of the major leagues. Currently, he stands at 751 career home runs, which are only 4 behind the all-time record set by Hank Aaron. But Barry Bonds’ career has been overshadowed with the rumors that he has used steroids to become stronger and bigger. At first when he came into the league, he was a skinny, little player not thought much of. But as the years progressed, he became bigger and stronger. Some other former and current players have talked about Barry Bonds and his potential use of steroids. Some people think Bonds has used steroids while others don’t.

In my humble opinion, I believe that Bonds has used steroids. People just don’t come into the MLB skinny as a string bean and then become strong as rock. It just doesn’t work that way. Bonds was a mere 185 lbs. when he entered the league. But now, he is listed at 240 lbs. To me, you can’t get that big without the help of another (illegal) substance. It’s just a matter of time until he is found guilty, but anyone can believe anything they want. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

There are many reasons that teens use steroids. They can use it to boost athletic performance or have a better body image like people they see on TV. But all of these reasons are wrong. You can get a better body image by normal things like good exercise and eating habits. The age where teens are most likely experiment with steroids is 15 (Gober, McCabe, Klien).

Another story of steroid abuse is with Floyd Landis. At the 2006 Tour de France (the biggest bicycle race of the year) Landis came from behind to win. But a few days later, it was found that he had an unusually high level of testosterone in his body, which hinted that he might have used steroids. Landis insisted that he hadn’t used steroids, but the results said otherwise. But Landis still has the Tour de France title, but there are hearings still scheduled to see if he will lose his title. Landis may not have lost his title yet, but he sure has lost the trust and respect of fellow Americans.

Steroids can be taken in a number of ways. They can be injected by a needle, taken through mouth by a pellet or pill, and even rubbed into the body by creams.

But steroids are illegal to possess in the United States without a prescription. Still, it has been found that steroids have been brought into the US one way or another. Since a prescription is not needed to purchase steroids from Europe and Mexico, that is one source of how steroids are being brought into the U.S. On possession of illegal steroids, the maximum consequences are one year in prison and a fine $1,000. But if you bring steroids into the US, you could get 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. (US DEA).

Steroids are eroding the reputation of professional sports. Everyday, the confidence and trust in athletes are decreasing with each case of steroid abuse. This needs to stop before no one believes in our athletes and considers pro sports a big joke itself.

Works Cited
CNN Organization. “Benoit had steroids in system.” www.cnn.com. 17 July 2007. CNN. 19 July 2007 http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/‌2007/‌more/‌07/‌17/‌bc.wrestlerdead.ap/‌index.html.

Drug Enforcement Administration. “Steroids.” www.usdoj.gov. Aug. 2006. US Drug Enforcement Administration. 17 July 2007 http://www.usdoj.gov/‌dea/‌concern/‌steroids.html#11.

Gober, Sarita, Paul McCabe, and Malky Klien. “Adolescents and Steroids: What Principals Should Know.” Principal Leadership Nov. 2006. Wilson Select Plus. OCLC. University of Detroit Mercy (Detroit, MI). 18 July 2007 http://firstsearch.oclc.org/.

Lew, Kristi. “Jucied: The real deal on anabolic steroids.” InfoTrac One. InfoTrac OneFile. Thomson Gale. University of Detroit Mercy (Detroit, MI). 13 July 2007 http://infotrac.galegroup.com/‌itweb/‌?db=ITOF.