Performance Enhancing Drugs

Since the beginning of time, human beings have participated in competition of some sort. Whether it is a game of chance, or an individual or team sport, competition has been a major part of the human experience. In the realm of competition, the participants are always trying to gain some kind of advantage over their opponent. Scouting, studying opponents' tendencies, and putting in extra practice time are just a few ways competitors legally and ethically improve themselves and their teams. But some choose to go another route, a shortcut if you will, by blatantly cheating. Stealing game plans and strategies provide an unfair advantage over an opponent, but the only damage done is to the integrity of competition. A more harmful form of cheating is the use of performance enhancing drugs. Not only is the integrity of the sport or game damaged, the physical effects of prolonged use can be detrimental as well. The thought of physical damage to the body as a side effect of performance enhancing drug use should be enough to scare off any would be user, but it is not. The question to be asked is why. Why do athletes, or any competitor, feel the need to use performance enhancing drugs for competition? Is it solely for the purpose of winning? Is their motivation a psychological one? Will they gain financially from the use? All of these questions at some point probably cross the mind of a potential user.

"If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'." This is a well-known quote from many years ago whose origin is unclear. Who, when and where this was first said may not be known for certain, but one thing is certain: there are many people who believe the statement is true and appropriate. Let's not kid ourselves, the minute organized competitions were put together in ancient times, someone has tried to work around the rules; and that usually involved the use of some kind of substance. Ancient Greek athletes experimented with herbal medications in an effort to enhance their performances, drank wine potions, and used hallucinogens. In more recent years, the early 1950's saw increased use of amphetamines, and in the late 50's, the first anabolic steroid was produced. In the 60's, there was continued use of steroids and amphetamines, but also athletes and their health problems, up to and including their death, started to appear. Since then federal laws pertaining to certain drugs have been implemented, and different testing programs have been applied in various sports leagues and international athletics federations.

In the short term, the athlete that uses performance enhancing drugs benefits from the fame and notoriety, but at what cost? In professional athletics today there is a lot of money at stake. If someone had a $100 million dollar contract presented to them, one could certainly understand if they did whatever it takes to live up to the expectations that have placed