Performance enhancing drugs have been a controversial topic since they were first created in the 1930’s by a group of scientists. Mayo clinic staff says that “Steroids were made primarily to treat hypogonadism, a condition in which the testes do not produce sufficient testosterone for normal growth, development, and sexual functioning. However the scientists soon realized how the steroids could facilitate skeletal muscle growth in animals and this led to the abuse first from bodybuilders.” (Know The Risks). They were then picked up by athletes and controversially they were banned because they were seen as cheating, and giving too much of an advantage. Eventually more performance enhancing drugs were developed to give athletes and edge such as HGH, another alternative drug but this was also banned.  Performance enhancing drugs should be allowed in professional sports because as fans, we want the best athletes we can get, with the right amount and control they can be taken with minimum to no side effects and as an older athlete you’re old enough to know your limits, lastly if they are an option for everyone then they are no longer cheating but a fair competitive advantage.

As a coach you want what is best for your tem and athletes. Adrianne Blue, Senior Lecturer in International Journalism states that “top players in all sports tale drugs to train harder and feel no pain during play.” (P.1) Professional athletes push themselves as hard as they can every day. To perform to the best of their abilities with minimum fatigue, performance enhancing drugs may be necessary. Performance enhancing drugs such as anabolic steroids facilitate muscle growth while eliminating fatigue, allowing them to train more times with a higher intensity. With more muscle growth and better training professional athletes will be able to give a peak performance and give the fans what they paid for.
 

Knowing your body and how much performance enhancing drugs you can tolerate is up to you, your weight and age. At a college level you are old enough to know your limits. Steroids are a performance enhancing drug made to give you give you more physical strength by increasing testosterone. Testosterone is actually a hormone produced by the human body so steroids are just an increased amount of something you already you make naturally. The reason they’re so controversial is because, people such as athletes often abuse them and cause unhealthy side effects to their body. Gary Roberts from The Sports Lawyer said “Home runs are hit only because the player has great skill at swinging a bat at a little ball coming at him at over 90 mph. Most of the folks reading this could take steroids all their lives and still not be able to hit that little ball.” He is saying that even with taking steroids or other performance enhancing drugs that there is no way you can work up to even an normal athletes ability, so as far as cheating goes, there’s truly no concern. Also if these were allowed to everyone there is no discrimination because everyone would have the ability and choice to tale them. 

Despite what pros there may be there are also a lot of cons. Performance enhancing drugs should not be allowed in professional sports because it can cause health problems if overused and be a negative role model for children. The National Institute on Drug Abuse says that performance enhancing drugs such as steroids can slow metabolism, cause a decrease in size of male testicles, baldness, heart attacks and strokes and many other physical issues. There are worse things out there for you than performance enhancing drugs. Things such as cocaine, heroin and even alcohol can be more life threatening than steroids. No one would be forcing you to take them if they became legal, although legalizing them would give the people who want to take them a chance to live their life the way they want. They can be a health issue if abused but again, at the age of professional sports athletes are old enough to know how much to take and what their bodies can handle.

Performance enhancing drugs should be allowed in professional sports because as fans, we want the best athletes we can get. Yes there are risks but outlying the positive advantages they have there would be no harm in legalizing them for professional level sports. There are several more issues in the sport world rather than worrying about every athlete themselves, it should be the coaches and players responsibility as to what they can and can’t do, and legalizing performance enhancing drugs would eliminate more problems and maybe even make for more elite athletes.

Citations
"Anabolic Steroid Abuse." What Are Anabolic Steroids? N.p., n.d. Web. 21 May 2015.
"Fitness." Performance-enhancing Drugs: Know the Risks. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 May 2015.
"NSW Health." Anabolic Steroids. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 May 2015.
“Should Performance Enhancing Drugs (Such as Steroids) Be Accepted in Sports? - Drug Use in Sports - ProCon.org." ProConorg Headlines. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 May 2015.”