Performance enhancing drugs, or doping, is defined as the use of banned drugs or strategies to improve performance as well as results in an athletic environment. The first drug that comes to mind when discussing this subject is Steroids, which is used by weightlifters and bodybuilders. However, doping includes an athlete's use of other prohibited drugs such as stimulants, diuretics, narcotics, hormones, and even marijuana. Also, forbidden methods like blood transfusions or gene doping, and even refusing to take a drug test or giving efforts to tamper with tests designed to detect the presence of doping constitute as doping. The process of doping has been around since third century BC, by ancient Greek Olympic athletes who sought to enhance performance by using such stimulants as alcohol and hallucinogenic mushrooms. Also, Roman gladiators took stimulants to overcome fatigue and injury. Therefore, doping has been around for a while and shows no sign of going away, despite efforts to combat it. The uncovering of the veil, exposing individuals use of performance enhancing drugs has raised eyebrows from many physicians and authorities such as the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) due to the potential health risks, questionable ethical viewpoints, and unfairness to natural athletes.

The abundance of literature such as articles available online and other publications as well as common sense related to the potential health risks of performance enhancing drugs should be enough for individuals to avoid usage, however, the problem is still here and the demand for doping substances flourish. Although it is general knowledge that steroids are bad, the lack of specific education on the subject is why many people go down the road regardless. Anabolic steroids (AS) promote skeletal muscle growth as well as the development of male characteristics in males and females. This was first discovered in a lab on animals which unfortunately led to the abuse of the substance on humans, commonly weightlifters and bodybuilders. According to recent reports from the World Anti-Doping Agency, anabolic steroids make up for 60% of doping methods. According to scholarly article, "Performance enhancing drug abuse and cardiovascular risk in athletes: implications for the clinician", "Elevated systemic arterial blood pressure is associated with an increased CV disease risk. Compared to healthy controls, AS users have increased resting and exercise systolic blood pressure." Therefore, the use of AS exposes users to certain cardiovascular diseases. A larger range of possible health risks linked to Long-Term Psychiatric and Medical Consequences of Anabolic-Androgenic Steroid Abuse (ASS) are included in "Long-Term Psychiatric and Medical Consequences of Anabolic-Androgenic Steroid Abuse" which states, "Supraphysiologic doses of AAS appear to produce a range of adverse cardiovascular effects, including cardiomyopathy, left ventricular hypertrophy, dyslipidemia (increased low-density lipoprotein and decreased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, with potential acceleration of atherosclerosis), myocardial ischemia, adverse effects on coagulation and platelet aggregation, and arrhythmias. Some of these effects, such as hypertension, dyslipidemia, and coagulation abnormalities, remit after AAS use is discontinued, but effects such as atherosclerosis and cardiomyopathy are likely irreversible. These effects have been blamed for numerous premature deaths among athletes in their 20’s and 30’s known or believed to have used AAS - either from cardiac disease or cerebrovascular accidents." These two articles shed light on what can be expected if you decide to consume performance enhancing drugs, and specifically anabolic steroids. As evident by these two examples, it is not the substance alone which poses a threat to your health, it is the health issues it brings about which does the damage. To give a specific example of its impact on your health, a discussion on Rich Piana is necessary. Rich Piana was a famous bodybuilder who was open about his aggressive steroid use and other supplements. He overdosed in his house and collapsed into the floor while getting a haircut from his wife, Chanel Jansen. A police report stated that white powder and 20 bottles of steroids were found upon their arrival. Although he felt he had it under control by respecting on/off cycles and seeing a doctor regularly, he unfortunately never awoke from his coma and was confirmed dead on August 25, 2017, devastating the bodybuilding community (Becky Pemberton and Neal Baker). Unfortunately, it can be expected that we will see more cases like these from people who used steroids in the future as the effects are beginning to catch up to them. Many of these cases will be from the bodybuilding culture as it has the most amount of people doping.

Sports have served as an outlet for many people around the world to unwind and detach themselves from their hardships, stress, jobs, and even kids. To kick your feet up and watch the Dallas Cowboys out play the Washington Redskins in a friendly game of American football is a perfect way to forget all about any responsibilities and commitments for a couple of hours. The players tackling, jumping, and running until their lungs command them to stop solely to win a game, ultimately for your enjoyment, seems to be justified by the players hefty paycheck. However, when doping methods get the best of the most competitive players, the question of ethics fills the locker room air. Sportsmanship conduct has always been a part of sports such as respecting fellow athletes and the game. Doping diminishes this aspect to sports. Values such as fairness, honesty, health, respect for rules and regulations, and character are left torn apart like Bruce Banners shirt. These aspects, which define the spirit of sports, are held in high regards to coaches and the majority of players. According to the National Football Leagues(NFL) website, "Sportsmanship is the core of our game, the foundation of our values. It is the thread that ties together the desire of everyone in the NFL to win ethically, with fairness and respect. Sportsmanship is the vanguard of public confidence — the keeper of game integrity." However, players such as Shawn Springs of the Seattle Seahawks, Julius Peppers of the Carolina Panthers, and Bill Romanowski of the Denver Broncos have been suspended due to their consummation of prohibited drugs, violating the organizations rules (Foxsports). Players such as Tom Brady, Cameron Newton, and Ezekiel Elliot who are looked up upon by children, hold a position to lead by example and provide guidance to many. Therefore, the thought that these men could potentially give the idea to use performance enhancing drugs is sinister and could pose a threat to our youth. Other sports have been kissed by the fowl mouth of doping use such as cycling. The most memorable circumstance is the admittedly use of Erythropoietin(EPO), testosterone, Cortisone, human growth hormone, and Illegal blood transfusions and other blood doping by famous road cyclist Lance Armstrong on an interview with Oprah Winfrey, the billionaire talk show host (Jacque Wilson). As a result, in 2012, he was banned from sanctioned Olympic sports for life and all of his seven tour wins were voided. A bigger scale doping issue can be credited to the recent Russian doping scandal in which the United Kingdom Anti-Doping agency and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) gave efforts to testing Russian athletes. They reported in 2016 that they were greeted with intimidating armed forces. Then after a former lab director made allegations about the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, WADA commissioned an independent investigation in which they discovered significant evidence that the state had used a system to beat drug testing by using a method in which a positive test would disappear. This is tremendously irresponsible according to Sir Philip Craven, the president of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), in which he is on record using the phrase, “medals over morals” after attacking Vladimir Putin’s government of its "inability to fulfil its IPC membership responsibilities and obligations." (Jacob Steinburg). When an entire country is guilty in illegal activities such as doping, the problem is real as well as obvious and in need of a solution. As Russia's choices could influence greatly, many kids observe athletes. They look up to them and wish to be just like them. Therefore, the influence of performance enhancing drugs is a real risk to children. Monkey see, monkey do. Ergo, as long as athletes hold a position to serve as public figures in society, the war on doping should wage on to combat this danger to public health.

Imagine dedicating hours upon hours every week practicing the sport you love, practicing repeatedly, and making sacrifices just to be beaten by someone who hasn’t put in the work nor the effort. This is essentially what performance enhancing drugs allow. According to Michael Dillingham, the writer of the article, " Steroids, Sports and the Ethics of Winning" of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, "steroid use is a form of cheating. Since steroids work so well, they create an unfair advantage for those who take them, and this breaks the social contract athletes have implicitly agreed to: We are going to have a fair contest. There are things we can and cannot do. Even if there were a safe performance-enhancing substance, if it weren't available to everybody, using it would still be cheating." People such as Bennett Foddy of the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University argue that doping simply evens the playing field, comparing the use of hyoxic air machines (used to elevate blood count) and certain characteristics of athletes that give them an advantage such as swimmers with large feet and gymnasts that are extremely flexible to doping. According to Foddy, "By allowing everyone to take performance enhancing drugs, we level the playing field. We remove the effects of genetic inequality. Far from being unfair, allowing performance enhancement promotes equality." However, according to former president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, Richard Pound, "Remember that athletes don't take these drugs to level the playing field, they do it to get an advantage. And if everyone else is doing what they're doing, then instead of taking 10 grams or 10 cc's or whatever it is, they'll take 20 or 30 or 40, and a vicious circle simply gets bigger. The end game will be an activity that is increasingly violent, extreme, and meaningless, practiced by a class of chemical and or genetic mutant gladiators. The use of performance-enhancing drugs is not accidental; it is planned and deliberate with the sole objective of getting an unfair advantage." Mr. Pounds hypothesis is correct, athletes dope to rise above other athletes and if all athletes were on some sort of substance, the dosages would rise in efforts to stay ahead. Any way you slice it, doping serves as a way for athletes to gain an unfair advantage and ultimately cheat.

Many people support the motion to legalize the use of performance enhancing drugs. One person with this opinion is Chris Smith of Forbes, in which he states, "Not only would the playing field suddenly be even for all players, it would be at a higher level. A huge part of watching sports is witnessing the very peak of human athletic ability, and legalizing performance enhancing drugs would help athletes climb even higher. Steroids and doping will help pitchers to throw harder, home runs to go further, cyclists to charge for longer and sprinters to test the very limits of human speed." However, this would constrict the many athletes who refuse to dope and either force them to quit or force them to dope. Many people believe that doping is the only way to stay competitive in sports. In an interview for the movie, Generation Iron 2 (2017), Rich Piana stated that steroid use was necessary for serious competitive bodybuilder. However, bodybuilders such as 4x Mr. Olympia Physique champion, Jeremy Buendia proves this theory wrong. After passing all doping tests and showing no signs of steroid use, which include bad skin, popped out shoulders and an accelerated gain of muscle. Buendia has been on top for four years in a row and has done so without taking shortcuts by doping, showing the possibility of staying clean and able to compete at the highest level. Raymmar Tirado of the Huffington Post stated, "Imagine if we told Hollywood actors that they were no longer allowed to be in another movie if they have had undergone plastic surgery. Or what if we told all the magazine publishers that they are no longer allowed to Photoshop the images that they use inside of their publications.

Maybe next we’ll try to tell college kids who take Adderall that their test scores are invalid or tell the pregnant mother that she has to suffer through the pain of child birth because the epidural would artificially dull the pain." This comparison of other forms of enhancement to the use of PED's would make sense. However, the number of health concerns to plastic surgery, photoshop, Adderall and Epidural are minimal, while there are cases upon cases of health issues due to PED's. When steroids contain side effects such as testicular shrinkage and breast development in men, how is there a debate as to why they should be legal?

As the fight against performance enhancing drugs began in 1960, serious measures didn't develop until the establishment of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on November 10th 1999 which was built to have equal representation regarding the Olympic movement between nations. This organization strives to educate on the matter of PED's and to make sports pure again. However, according to Nicole Sapstead, chief of the UK Anti-Doping (Ukad), "I would love to able to address the issues that we see at an amateur level, but the reality is we just don't have the resources to do that." Therefore, a solution to this would be to levy ticket sales to fund widespread tests. 
