Drugs have been around for thousands of years but their reasons for being used has changed. Drugs were originally intended for medical uses. In ancient Egypt, physicians prescribed tannic acid to treat burns. The early Chinese and Greek pharmacies included opium used as a pain- killer, while Hindus used cannabis and henbane plants as an esthetic. With the advances in technology drugs have become more helpful yet more deadly.

Since drugs have become easier to get they have also become more popular with young people and competitors in sports. During the mid-nineteenth new drugs emerged from the laboratories athletes started to be experimented on. The French tried using caffeine to enhance their performances. While other Europeans were mixing cocaine and heroin to give them extra energy they called this drug “speedball”. In 1886 this deadly mix contributed to the first drug related death in sports by taking the life of a cross-country cyclist. Today the drugs have changed dramatically many athletes have done or are on anabolic steroids, amphetamines, depressants or what are known as “ brake drugs”.

Anabolic steroids are chemicals that are similar to testosterone, the male sex hormone. Steroids are used by a number or young people to enhance their muscle mass and increase their performances. While anabolic steroids are successful at building muscle, they can damage many human body organs, such as the heart, kidneys and liver. Steroids are taken by injection or in pill form, after steroids enter the bloodstream; they are distributed to organs and muscle throughout the body.

Forty-eight percent of high school students use steroids to improve athletic performance. Steroids can increase performances for athletes but steroids also affect the mind and character of the person. Some effects of steroids are impaired learning and hearing, violent behavior, and overly aggressive behavior. When women take steroids they start to show signs of masculinity such as deepening of the voice, increase in body and facial hair also the skin starts to roughen. Anabolic steroids give the one who takes them an unfair advantage in athletic competition. The advantage that they receive is not the same as natural born characteristics of ability.

Another drug that some professional athletes seem to have an obsession with is cocaine. Cocaine was considered to be the drug of the eighties and it proved to be especially in the sport of baseball. During the 1980’s cocaine seemed to be the drug of baseball. Many players in baseball were effected by coke including former all-star outfielder Daryl Strawberry and pitching ace Steve Howe were suspended from baseball for cocaine use and cocaine possession. Cocaine is on all the four major professional banned substance list and so are all illegal substances that can enhance an athlete’s performance. Many professional athletes have turned to natural sources of performance enhancers, which are found in the human body.

In conclusion, I believe that all synthetic drugs should be banned from sports and that all athletes that have any illegal drug in their system should be banned from that sport for life. I also believe that there should be no rehabilitation paid for by the league, which would allow the athlete to apply for reinstatement. The use of drugs should not be allowed for any professional or amateur sport that one could compete against others in.

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