It has already been confirmed that performance enhancement drugs are illegal. Therefore if you’re an athlete and you use performance enhancement drugs you’re not only committing a felony, but you are also cheating in the sports. If caught using, the contestant will be banned from competing for two years and will be stripped of all titles.
Lance Armstrong was accused of using performance enhancement drugs for a long period of time. He admitted using testosterone, erythropoietin, cortisone, human growth hormones and more. He was stripped of all seven Tour de France titles and his Olympic bronze medal he won in 2000.
Marion Jones, the fastest runner in the world, admitted using clean steroids. (Steroids that can't be detected on a drug test.) She then lied twice saying she never used performance enhancement drugs. She later plead guilty and was stripped of all titles she won in the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000. She served six months in jail and was banned from competing in the Olympics for two years.
When athletes use performance enhancement drugs, it cheats the other fair playing competitors. If an athlete wins a title, and then is later caught cheating from using drugs, the second place competitor should then be awarded first place.
Performance enhancement drugs have multiple repercussions. They can seriously damage your health in many ways. These drugs increase the risk for tendon reputes, liver tumors and abnormalities, high blood pressure, HIV, hepatitis, and severe acne. Why would you take all these risks for just a substance that will benefit you for only a small period of time?
Three weeks prior to the 2012 summer Olympics in London, many wondered whether Oscar Pistorius should be able to compete due to an unfair advantage. The unfair advantage was Oscar’s two prosthetic legs, that other competitors said gave him an extra spring in his step. The question seems outrageous. How could a man with prosthetic leg have an unfair advantage over natural athletes? Ironically, here was a handicapped person fighting for his right to compete with normal athletes when healthy prominent athletes were doping to give themselves an illegal advantage. Which athlete do you think should represent our country in the Olympic Games?
As long as we have competitive sports, people will always try to cheat its system through performance enhancement drug use. These drugs impact you negatively in many ways. All those reasons make me hold firm to the idea that people using performance enhancement drugs should be banned from competing in sports.