Why Are Steroids Illegal? Why Do We Care About PEDs in Sports?

[Jer]

Another discussion spurred this topic so I thought i would start a new thread to discuss. Here's my take:

This PED debate is SUCH horseshit! People want the fountain of youth and steroids/HGH and related drugs are the closest science has ever gotten to the Holy Grail. Throw the deep pockets of professional sports at the research and let the results help all of mankind. But NOOOO, instead we get a bunch of couch jockeys who think that ANYONE can be a professional athlete if they inject something. That's not how real life works. It can slightly increase athletic ability, substantially increases the human body's ability to heal from injury and recover from working out (good things) and can help to replace what is naturally lower in some due to age or just how their particular chemical production works. Why this is SO taboo is beyond me.

Don't even get me started on the amount of tax payer money wasted to find these horrible horrible people who would use something society has deemed evil. We should be using that money to research it to find out how it can BENEFIT mankind.

At some point in the future people will look back with confusion & humor at how we treated this topic and I don't like being part of the generation that outlawed one of the most important scientific discoveries made to date.

Thoughts?

[Zundfolge]

The problem with PEDs is that it sets up a situation where the only way an athlete can be competitive is if they expose themselves to drugs that may end up harming or killing them.

[dwalker460]

So this has two sides, the competetive and the social. On the social side what happens goes along these lines-

Little Johnny is a good baseball player in Tee Ball, but as he gets a little older and moves up into competitive ranks, he is just one of many, and maybe even mediocre. Sooo he takes a little juice to make him stronger or faster or whatever. And as he goes along he takes more and more of it, CHOOSING to ignore the health side effects. And then one day his leg breaks because the drugs have weakened his bones, or he has a heart attack , or some form of embollism, requiring a lot of hospitalization his health insurance has to pay for. So the insurance company makes a policy that they will not cover steriod abuse related illness or injuries. Well now the taxpayers have to pay for Johnnys continued medical needs.
OOOOO no one likes that. Why, if those bad bad drugs were illegal then golly the abuse wouldnt happen, and it would give the insurance companies a bigger out, and we can then arrest people for steriod possesion, because everyone knows spending a 100K a year to keep an abuser locked up is much better than paying for medical bills.


On the competitive side, other competitors do not like the thought that its the drugs and not just hard work or natural ability beating them. It comes down to a moral choice that they do not want to be beaten because they chose not to take drugs.

IMHO I dont care if they are legal and some chumps want to dope up and hit the wieghts, but I would have an issue with them in professional sports.

[jackthewall81]

They should be legal.

[Sparky]

I was growth hormone deficient as a child. I grew up taking the shots in order to reach 5'3" tall. Science has now proven that we still need it as an adult to function normally. Try find a doc to prescribe it though.

[Delfuego]

http://www.hulu.com/watch/4090

[Jer]

The problem with PEDs is that it sets up a situation where the only way an athlete can be competitive is if they expose themselves to drugs that may end up harming or killing them.

Taking PEDs doesn't always make you a better athlete than someone who doesn't use them. Simply put, it takes MUCH more than an injection to become a great athlete regardless of what you hear from the media. There's also a misconception that taking steroids automatically means a shortened lifespan or more complications down the road as if we're all promised to not get some sort of complication even if we don't take steroids. Lots of times these side effects experienced from the use of steroids are due to the misuse of steroids or lack of knowledge of the use of steroids. That's not just to say that people like you and I use them and don't know but the medical community still doesn't even know fully which is why we need more research and use and not less. Look what professional sports has done for other ailments, injuries and illnesses that otherwise would have taken decades or centuries using normal channels available.

Do you think that someone who is morbidly obese that already has a grim outlook on living a healthy long-term life wouldn't live longer or better with the use of steroids and more knowledge under a doctor's supervision?

[Jer]

So this has two sides, the competetive and the social. On the social side what happens goes along these lines-

Little Johnny is a good baseball player in Tee Ball, but as he gets a little older and moves up into competitive ranks, he is just one of many, and maybe even mediocre. Sooo he takes a little juice to make him stronger or faster or whatever. And as he goes along he takes more and more of it, CHOOSING to ignore the health side effects. And then one day his leg breaks because the drugs have weakened his bones, or he has a heart attack , or some form of embollism, requiring a lot of hospitalization his health insurance has to pay for. So the insurance company makes a policy that they will not cover steriod abuse related illness or injuries. Well now the taxpayers have to pay for Johnnys continued medical needs.
OOOOO no one likes that. Why, if those bad bad drugs were illegal then golly the abuse wouldnt happen, and it would give the insurance companies a bigger out, and we can then arrest people for steriod possesion, because everyone knows spending a 100K a year to keep an abuser locked up is much better than paying for medical bills.


On the competitive side, other competitors do not like the thought that its the drugs and not just hard work or natural ability beating them. It comes down to a moral choice that they do not want to be beaten because they chose not to take drugs.

IMHO I dont care if they are legal and some chumps want to dope up and hit the wieghts, but I would have an issue with them in professional sports.

Weakened bones from PEDs? That's not how they work. What if 'Little Johnny' became a MORE healthy young adult as a result of advancements being made and using them under the supervision of a doctor? These drugs have the ability to make human beings MORE healthy. To heal from injury and sickness QUICKER. The potential that the drugs possess is limitless. Right now the entities that could be advancing this are tied up on making them beat drug tests. No matter what tests we create they will find a way to beat them. It's pointless. If you don't feel they're right then that's fine and you can teach your children that just like you teach them to not drink bleach, gamble, drink, smoke or whatever you deem immoral. None of those however possess the ability to help heal humans and turn back the hands of time.

As for as from a competitive standpoint... pretty much everyone at an elite level uses some form of PED and if you think that only handful of people who have already been caught or are questioned are the only ones then your kidding yourself. SO Much energy is being wasted on not being caught that could be wasted on betting mankind. Most real athletes will look at themselves if they fail. The ones who find something to blame the other guy for will find something else to blame the other guy for.

[Sparky]

Weakened bones from PEDs? That's not how they work. What if 'Little Johnny' became a MORE healthy young adult as a result of advancements being made and using them under the supervision of a doctor? These drugs have the ability to make human beings MORE healthy. To heal from injury and sickness QUICKER. The potential that the drugs possess is limitless. Right now the entities that could be advancing this are tied up on making them beat drug tests. No matter what tests we create they will find a way to beat them. It's pointless. If you don't feel they're right then that's fine and you can teach your children that just like you teach them to not drink bleach, gamble, drink, smoke or whatever you deem immoral. None of those however possess the ability to help heal humans and turn back the hands of time.

As for as from a competitive standpoint... pretty much everyone at an elite level uses some form of PED and if you think that only handful of people who have already been caught or are questioned are the only ones then your kidding yourself. SO Much energy is being wasted on not being caught that could be wasted on betting mankind. Most real athletes will look at themselves if they fail. The ones who find something to blame the other guy for will find something else to blame the other guy for.

Yep I have lowered bone density.

[Jer]

I was growth hormone deficient as a child. I grew up taking the shots in order to reach 5'3" tall. Science has now proven that we still need it as an adult to function normally. Try find a doc to prescribe it though.

Great example. Doctors won't prescribe them because society has deemed them immoral and wrong... NOT the medical community. This is an important distinction that needs to be made.