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Usage in Sports

In sports, performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) are pharmacologic agents, substances, chemicals, or procedures that enhance an athlete's performance giving them an advantage. However, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) avoids using a set definition because with that, using an inhaler for asthma would be consider doping. The banned substances, that are considered doping are listed by WADA. To determine which drugs are prohibited the International Olympic Committee (IOC) colaborate with physicians so some drugs, that are needed to treat disorders, are still available. The IOC, along with WADA, works to enforce the list of prohibited drugs in athletics and the World Anti-Doping Code.

Doping in sports has been around since the ancient Greek and olympic games. Roman gladiators were known to take stimulants from plants to increase performance and prevent fatigue in games. Stimulants from plants include bufotein, fly-garic, cola acuminita, or cola nitida. The ancient Greeks discovered the use of testosterone by observing the effects of castration in animals; by eating the testes of animals, testosterone became the first hormone used to enhance performance. In the nineteenth century, with the advancement in pharmacology and medicine, stimulants became the primary aid to increase energy and muscular activity. Athletes began mixtures of strychnine and cocaine in their caffeinated drinks, so they had more energy and could compete for longer times. In the twentieth century, scientist synthesized testosterone, which increased the use among athletes especially weightlifters. Anabolic steroids, human growth hormone, and cortisone were the main drugs used in the late twentieth century among athletes. The use of other methods such as blood transfusion and erythropoietin also began to be used to increase athletic performance.

Controversy surrounds the use of steroids in sports. On one side, the use of drugs prevents us from accepting our natural talents because it is the drugs doing the work, which it is not raw talent. Also, drugs remove the reason of sports, which is human competition, because they make us more bionic, making the competition no longer between two humans. WADA has tried to focus on anti-doping efforts by encouraging confrontation efforts. When it comes to knowing someone doping people feel more comfortable confronting the person rather than reporting them. There are different reasons athletes do not to take drugs, which include: morally against cheating, they may have things outside of their sport which may negatively affected, are not susceptible to social group pressures, and the increase of anti-doping climate has made some less willingly to try.

On the other side, performance enhancing substances should be allowed in sports because it evens the playing field because genetics of some people give advantages that others may not have. In addition to people's genetics, having coaches and training may be seen as an advantage, so there is no difference there. Also, by approving enhancement drugs, there would be a reduction of cheating because it eliminating a rule of most sports. Legalizing the usage of performance-enhancement drugs may lead to an informed way of doping at a safe level. Anti-doping efforts also want to focus on professional athletes who have use performance-enhancement drugs and use their confessions to promote a "clean" sport. The promotion of a clean sport usually focuses on increased drug testing and regulations rather than decreasing usage, which may not seem helpful if they didn't want PEDs to be used.