Brady Lakes
Rachel Robson
C & C Bullshit
March 8, 2009
Drug Testing
When people are asked what they think of professional sports, many people would say they depict the wrong values. Many people believe that many of the athletes are self-centered and only worry about one thing, getting paid. The reason that this happens is because there have been stories all over the news and sporting channels about athletes getting caught taking illegal performance enhancing drugs. If there were mandatory drug tests for all professional athletes, there would be less controversy over professional athletes and the image they represent.
There should be mandatory drug testing for all professional athletes, there would not be any controversy then when it comes to records and wins. Take the home run record for instance, Barry Bonds now holds the record for it, but many people believe there should be an asterisk by his name because he was tested and it was confirmed that he had used performance enhancing drugs.
For this policy to take effect there must be guidelines that will need to be followed. One of these guidelines is athletes will take the expense out of their own salary for drug tests. Professional athletes are paid ridiculous amounts of money to play, and it would make sense for them to pay for their own tests so every single one of the professional athletes gets what he or she deserves. The funding will come from the athlete’s contract, the agent and the owner of the team will need to come to an agreement on this. There will also need to be meetings with the commissioners of each sport to come up with the exact dates and times for the testing to take place. Another guideline that must be followed is there must be more than one test. There must be a test before, during and after the athletic season. That would make it much tougher for athletes to use performance enhancing drugs. This would mean that there would have to be meetings for each individual sport to figure out what dates they would be because many sports do not always have season lengths that are the same.
Enforcement of this law would not be hard. There would basically be one way to do this. There would be two parts to it. The first would be to make a date in the future that would say by that date every contract should come to terms with this new law. The second part of this law would be, if the athlete refuses to partake in the drug tests, then he or she will be suspended for a set amount of time, and it will also be brought to the public eye.
People may make arguments against this law. The two arguments that will most likely be used are; where would the funds for this come from, and the right to privacy. Both of these two arguments will not hold up against this policy. The funds would come from the salary of the athletes; it would have to be incorporated into the athletes’ contracts. The argument for right to privacy would also not be a valid argument; these athletes are paid to be in the spot light. They should set good examples for younger people who look up to them, this entails playing his or her sport without using illegal performance enhancing drugs.
According to Graham J. Trout and Rymantas Kazlauskas, the performance enhancing drugs are not only illegal, but they are harmful to one’s body. This is just another reason that drugs should not be used, and also should be tested for. The risks are serious enough that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) now has 29 accredited laboratories that test samples from athletes (Graham 2004).
In an article written by Sal Ruibal, the author mentions that a universal drug test for all sports is far from being achieved. He says that ever since the beginning of the Olympics athletes have taken herbs, and other sorts of substances to gain the edge in athletic competition. The fact is that drug tests are not always 100% correct. This may be true, but if there were mandatory drug tests it would make athletes think twice before taking illegal performance enhancing drugs (Ruibal 2004).
Zachary Coile says that there is a bill introduced by the House lawmakers that says all athletes will have the same consequences. For a first positive test, there will be a 2 year suspension from the sport and a second positive test would result in a lifetime ban from the sport. This is exactly how the Olympic games are tested. The Commerce Department secretary would be responsible for enforcing the rules and regulations. The secretary could also add new found substances that he or she wants to add to the list of banned substances (Coile 2005).
In the article by Christopher Clarey, he mentions that athletes need to live with less privacy because it is a new era that demands answers. Jacques Rogge, a Belgian doctor who is also the president of the International Olympic Committee, said “The best way to alleviate the suspicion is allow for out-of-competition testing”. With everybody being tested then there would leave no room for suspicion of illegal drug use ((Clarey 2009)).
Some people believe that steroids and other illegal performance enhancing drugs should be legalized because athletes take painkillers, and use devices that help their bodies recover faster. Michael J. Mitten says that there is a difference in the use of these. The illegal drugs are used to gain an advantage over someone else in the sport while harming one’s self. The drugs have serious health risks whereas the painkillers and other supporting devices are there to help an athlete stay in the game, not to give them an advantage (Mitten 2005).
My policy would silence the illegal drug use suspicions and would make it harder for athletes to get away with using and abusing illegal performance enhancing drugs. This is needed because every week we hear of athletes getting caught using drugs and then being stripped of records and medals. With this policy there would be no more controversy, and would make the sporting world a better place.
Works Cited
Clarey, Christopher (2009, March, 1). Athletes Must Learn to Live with Drug Testing. Retrieved March 9, 2009, from http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/01/sports/ARENA.php
Coile, Zachary (2005, April, 25). Bill seeks to toughen Drug Testing in Pro Sports. Retrieved March 9, 2009, from http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/04/27/MNGMICG0SS1.DTL
Mitten, Michael J. (2005, November). Is Drug Testing of Athletes Necessary?. Retrieved March 10, 2009, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1272/is_2726_134/ai_n15875738
Trout, Graham J. (2004). Sports Drug Testing. Retrieved March 9, 2009, from http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/CS/article.asp?doi=b201476a
Ruibal, Sal (2004, September, 9). Tackling Longtime Issue of Drugs. Retrieved March 9, 2009, from http://www.usatoday.com/sports/2004-09-09-ten-changes-drugs-testing_x.htm
