Mitchell 1

Danny Mitchell
Professor Reed
Comp 1
22 November 2015
Steroids: Who needs them?
According to the Monitoring the future study among the school age
children community from 1991-2002 22% of 8th graders, 33.2% of 10th
graders, and 46.1% of 12th graders said that it would be, fairly easy for
them to obtain steroids. Not only are steroids way too easy to get ahold of,
but even younger age groups are now able to get their hands on them. The
problem is that steroids are dangerous for health reasons, as well as harmful
to the world of sports. Steroids have negative consequences and athletes do
not realize the consequences on their health and on their image that can
arise from the use of steroids.
Steroids are used for a variety of purposes. They could be used for
medical purposes. According to Medicine Net, When inflammation threatens
to damage critical body organs, steroids can be organ saving and, in many
instances, life-saving. For example, they may help prevent the progression of
kidney inflammation, which can lead to kidney failure in people who have
lupus or vasculitis. (What Conditions Are Treated With Steroids?). However,

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in the sports world they are used to enhance performance. According to an

NIDA Research Report, no well-controlled studies have documented that
(steroids) improve agility, skill, cardiovascular capacity, or overall athletic
performance (Do Anabolic Steroids Really Work?). Even with this evidence,
athletes continue to use steroids to elevate their performance. These
steroids may not have the positive effects they are said to have, but they
definitely have negative side effects. Steroids can cause violence, irritability,
liver damage, and heart problems including enlargement of the heart
(DrugFacts: Anabolic Steroids). Athletes continue to use these steroids
because they think they are the exception and they perceive that the drug
helps their game when in reality it damages their body.
Professional athletes serve as role models to younger amateur
athletes. When younger athletes see their role models cheating the system
using steroids and getting away with it, what do you think the young athletes
think? As stated earlier, school age children already know how easy it is to
get their hands on steroids and if their idols are using them, they think it is
okay for them too. With harmful side effects, they know that steroids can
increase strength. They want to improve their game just like the
professionals do, and they know its wrong just like the professionals do. On
the other hand, they see their heroes get away with time and time again, so

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the younger athletes think it is okay. There has been a spate of high-schoolathlete suicides in the past decade associated with steroid abuse; teens are
particularly at risk because the pattern of cycling on and off these drugs
messes with their hormone levels, leading to mood swings and severe
depression. (Butterworth, 2012).
Chris Smith, a Forbes staff member claims that legalizing steroids, the
playing field [would] suddenly be even for all players and that the game,
would be at a higher level (Why Its Time to Legalize Steroids in Professional
Sports). Every sport has some users that use steroids illegally but the sport
that has been accused the most is Major league Baseball. Many superstar
baseball players have been accused for steroid usage like Barry Bonds.
According to ESPN, Barry Bonds holds many Major League Baseball records
such as, 762 career home runs, 73 home runs in a season, 2,558 career
walks, and 688 career intentional walks (Barry Bonds statistics). Barry Bonds
was very exciting to watch. The game of baseball would exceed in
excitement if steroids would be legalized. Not only baseball but the sports
world as a whole would exceed tremendously. So maybe these claims are
true, but if everyone is using steroids, the game is not even the game
anymore. It completely changes the point and the athletes will all be at risk

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for the health side effects. Steroids are not the answer to equalize the
playing field, they are damaging to the user.
Aside from sports, in todays world the use of drugs are enforced
strictly. There are many things the world is doing to encourage us to stay
away from drugs. A lot would change if the drug steroids would be legalized.
Legalizing steroids would impact other athletes who dont do drugs to start
using them, therefore, there would be more illnesses because of all the side
effects from it. It would also open up doors for other drugs to be legalized.
The world and the people in it would change drastically.
Regardless of the level of play or age, steroids have more
negatives than positives in the athletic world today. Now that younger
athletes are getting their hands on these steroids they are suffering as well.
Steroids are ruining the world of sports and if athletes can stop using the
game would be back to its original values.

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Works Cited

What Conditions Are Treated With Steroids? Medicinnet.com N.p., n.d. Web.
22 Nov. 2015.
"Do Steroids Work?" Do Steroids Work? N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2015.
"What Are Anabolic Steroids?" What Are Anabolic Steroids? N.p., n.d. Web. 22
Nov. 2015.
Anabolic Steroids." DrugFacts:. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2015.
Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2015.
"ESPN." RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2015.