Positon Case

Summary

"To understand America, one must first understand baseball." This statement was famously affirmed by Jacques Barzun. On that note, professional baseball players are said to be the most denounced Americans using performance-enhancing drugs, but these enhancing drugs have become a part of "ordinary American life" (Elliot 644).

Many different performance-enhancing drugs are on the market and can be prescribed by a doctor. For example, Ritalin is used to improve academic performance; Viagra is used to stimulate sexual desires. On the other hand, if athletes want performance-enhancing drugs they are required to go to the black market.

It is quite obvious that steroids carry many dangers, as do the enhancement drugs people may receive from doctors. These side effects have included pulmonary hypertension, heart disease, strokes and breast cancer. Ordinary people also consume drugs that fall under the category of "cosmetic psychopharmacology" (Elliot 644). These drugs are known to have ties with suicide as well as homicide.

Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants and Jason Giambi of the Yankees were tagged in a scandal for using testosterone supplements. When this made its way to the outside world, companies ran with it. P&G later offered and were declined by the Food and Drug administration to market its new testosterone patch for ladies.

Response

People tend to look down upon professional athletes when they are accused and proven guilty of using steroids, or any other performance enhancing drugs, that is when I ask why? After reading this article, it is to my understanding that your basic prescription drugs and performance-enhancing drugs have many similarities.

Ordinary people throughout the nation are using drugs such as Adderall, Ritalin, Zoloft, Viagra and Paxil. All of these drugs help improve your daily performance in some area. Most of you probably don't even think twice when coming across people like that, but yet when a professional athlete uses a performance enhancing drug it is against the rules.

Professional athletes make an excessive amount of money for what they do; being so this allows them to afford a more luxurious lifestyle, which is very much envied by others. Most people secretly love to see these more fortunate people fail, and when they do these people frolic in the stars grief. This mindset is morally incorrect due to the fact that many people out in the real world are becoming smarter due to certain drugs, yet we are too worried about the physical attribute of a performance enhancing drug and would rather set back someone who makes a lot more money than your basic human because we are jealous.

I believe that if any performance enhancing drug is to be illegal they all should be. All of these drugs have some sort of serious side effect that