There is an almost daily report of one sports figure or another involved in a “doping” scandal of some type or another. Even the rumor of a sports figure using performance enhancing drugs (PED’s), often brings dishonor and disgrace to the athlete. Are these accusations appropriate or warranted? Perhaps there is a new point of view that would suggest that PED’s should not be banned but only regulated. For a variety of reasons, I propose that athletes should be allowed to use performance enhancing drugs because they already are, and legalization would level the playing field. Performance enhancing drugs should be permitted as long as the effects are understood. When I chose this topic, the first people I discussed it with were two certified athletic trainers. Based on the observations and discussions with Jeremy Bowman ATC, PES (J. Bowman, personal communication, October 21, 2014), and Jamie Stanley ATC, (J. Stanley, personal communication, October 21, 2014), they immediately stated their beliefs were based on the fact that by definition many athletes were already using PED’s. Both thought that athletes who used caffeine, HGH, any ADHD prescription medication, and lab shifting devices such as blood doping were by definition using PED’s. In particular they had observed that athlete’s using ADHD …show more content…
Sharon Ryan at the Department of Philosophy at West Virginia University. Dr. Ryan concludes that the use of PED’s is only against the rules because there are rules, whether the rules are appropriate or not. Another important line of reasoning suggests that some athlete’s are allowed to use prescription medications or supplements and others cannot. Does this allow for a level playing field? Do these rules also apply to new fabrics, equipment etc? Dr. Ryan concludes that we must answer the questions before we can definitely say PED’s should be