Legalizing performance-enhancing drugs: not such a bad idea?
DISCLAIMER: Views expressed are the writer's own and do not reflect the views of Sportskeeda as an organization.
In the wake of the news that Maria Sharapova tested positive for performance-enhancing drug meldonium, the debate of performance enhancing drugs has once again emerged. Many would ask if there is even a debate to consider, but others are calling for the legalization of performance enhancing drugs. You may be thinking, ‘of course they shouldn’t be legalized.’ But if you delve beneath the surface, you may find that the issue is a lot more complicated than it appears to be. But would the legalization of performance enhancing drugs really be so detrimental for the sporting world?
Argument 1: Health Effects
There’s no denying the fact that performance-enhancing drugs have adverse effects on an athlete’s body, and there have been numerous scientific papers that have said just that.
However, most of these drugs only inflict significant damage when they are used in excess, or used in the wrong way.
So rather than place an outright ban, making PEDs legal would allow information about these drugs to flow more openly allowing sportsmen/women to be better informed about what type of drug they are ingesting, and hence would lead to less overdoses and safer athletes.
Argument number 2: They make sport boring
Do they, though? Since the origins of sport in ancient China and Greece, the entertainment in sport has resided in it’s fast paced nature and the high level the athletes compete at.
Don’t performance enhancing drugs offer those things? Undoubtedly, it may be that the athletes can’t compete at the same level and pace if they didn’t take the PED’s but in the end, the entertainment is exemplified. Ultimately, most people would rather watch a high paced, competitive and physical battle on a football field than twenty two panting men disintegrate into the ground after an hour.
Argument number 3: Unfair advantages
This is probably the most common argument and at first glance, it appears to be the most justified.
However, the legalization of performance enhancing drugs would actually promote equality. In the world of sport right now, PED’s are illegal but this isn’t a perfect world. Many athletes have found ways to get past the detection system and no matter how hard authorities try to remedy it, some athletes will always find a way to beat the system.
A much better solution to this problem would be to simply deregulate the use of performance enhancing drugs. This would give all athletes access to these drugs, not just the select few who are more powerful or lucky than the others. If everyone has access to PED’s, not only would sport become more equal, but the overall level of entertainment would rise as the abilities of all athletes rise.
Additionally, PEDs promote equality because sport in general isn’t equal. Men and women in less developed nations are already at a severe disadvantage when it comes to sport because they lack facilities and proper training.
Genetics also play an instrumental role in determining the success of an athlete. It is almost impossible to be a basketball without towering over everyone else, nor is is possible to be a great boxer without bulging muscles. Since sport is heavily reliant on physical abilities which people have limited control over, could one not consider genetics to be just as unfair as performance enhancing drugs?
By this logic, genetics and having a wealthy upbringing should be banned because they give athletes an advantage. Of course this makes no sense, though. Performance enhancing drugs could be a potential way to level the playing field. If everyone could legally use them, everyone would be at the same level of ability and the only thing separating athletes would be physical toughness and pure talent. Is that not what we like to see in a sport?
Of course the debate isn’t simply black or white, or it wouldn’t be a debate at all. There are definite moral and ethical dilemmas to consider and the legalization of performance enhancing drugs would anger countless people. It would take society a long time to adjust and would change sport forever.