Performance-enhancing drugs in sports

[FoolKiller]

If you smoke some marijuana you can imagine anything.


or so I hear


The problem with drugs in sport is that they are banned, so only some sportspeople use them and therefore a) have an unfair advantage and b) are breaking the rules of their sport and therefore cheating, which is unsporting. Unban them so everyone can use them and there's no problem in the sport. It's then no more cheating than controlling your diet. Unfortunately, I believe it's far less healthy, and if every sportsperson is using them then so are all the kids who want to be fitter / faster / stronger, and you have a country full of unhealthy people who can run fast but die young, making lifting the ban somewhat impractical. For the pro sportspeople, I've got no more problem with a person using a (legal) substance that improves their performance but can damage their health than I had with, say, Ayrton Senna speeding up to the point where he felt he was going to crash, in order to win the race.

I have a thing against using banned drugs in sport because it's against the rules and is cheating. I watch sport to see who can exhibit the most skill in the sport itself, not who can exhibit the most skill in pulling the wool over the officials' eyes. If I wanted to see that I'd watch F1.

While the issue everyone is focused on is that it is bannd in the sports leagues they are still illegal. I did a bit more reading and found that the over-the-counter HGH isn't true HGH. True HGH is also a controlled substance. So, with or without league bans they are still illegal.

Whether they should be legal is a completely different thread, but while they are illegal whether the league has a ban or not should not play a part in this. On top of suspensions the players should also be facing legal consequences.