The Usage of PED’s in Major League Sports
Paul Brooks
Clover Hill High School
Mrs. Curran December 19, 2014

Over the years, many athletes have taken anabolic steroids and dietary supplements. Dietary supplements have the same effect on athletes as anabolic steroids do, but only after the supplements are taken, whereas steroids can be injected in the arm, or they can be dissolved under an athlete’s tongue. Although many people are taking dietary supplements just to lose weight, if one was tested for steroids in a sport, that athlete would fail the test and would be suspended from that particular sport for a certain amount of time. These steroids and dietary supplements are dangerous as well and have a lot of side effects; according to a study by Gwen
Knapp, “supplement use has been linked to the deaths of several athletes, who exceeded the recommended dosages or mixed their intake of supplements with other medications.”(Knapp)
Some steroids have side effects not labeled but can cause physical and psychological problems.
According to West, steroids have many physical side effects, “They can cause cancer and strokes, stunt bone growth, and lead to aggression.”(West) When a strand of vitamin stores first opened, they they could not sell a certain steroid, androstenedione, until Mark
McGwire
admitted to using this drug after his record breaking season, the shops then could not keep this steroid on the shelves. What the companies failed to inform the buyers about was that it can cause, “reduced s perm production, shrunken testicles, painful or prolonged erections, breast development, behavioral changes, heart disease, and others. Women might develop masculine traits including deepening of the voice, facial hair , acne, male­pattern baldness, and coarsening of the skin.”(Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database) These companies failed to inform the buyers of the most important thing about the drug just to make extra money(Knapp). As time has passed, more and more of the society surrounding has placed winning above the integrity of the sport, and athletes will stop at nothing to win, even if it means cheating. Some

people assume cheating is accepting bribes or throwing a game. This form of cheating is internal and affects many of the big names in sports like Lance Armstrong and Barry Bonds. These big names in sports have been caught using the “drug cheat” to enhance their performance, increase their chances of winning, and set records within their sports. The people who use these drugs, though they win, often bring a bad name to the sport and shame their teams. Over the past five years, professional sport organizations have been cracking down on players who use performance enhancing drugs just to gain an advantage over the competition. Athletes in all sports have been caught using drugs to improve their performance. Many of these athletes were considered heroes in their sport like Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Marion Jones and the most notable Lance Armstrong. Many players think they can get away with the drug use, but they fail to realize that once you are caught you are on the leagues radar until the day they retire.
In one article Dr. Eric Wallace states, “Most athletes take drugs to enhance their physical performance in an attempt to prevent them falling behind other competitors, even if it means damaging their health and risking their sports careers.”(Wallace) Many times, athlete’s will not think about the consequences before they make the decision to use Performance Enhancing
Drugs (PED’s) again. Dr. Eric Wallace states, “If athletes do test positive on a drugs charge they are at risk of losing a set percentage of their competitive season, they will be allowed to practice within this specified time but are not eligible to compete. If they test positive more than once they can be banned from competition for