There have been several athletes in history that have lost their ability to play professional sports as a result of taking performance-enhancing drugs. This has quickly become one of the largest issues in professional sports, as some athletes are willing to do whatever it takes to become a stronger competitor, even if it’s illegal. Testing athletes for drugs has a variety of advantages, but there are also disadvantages to take into consideration.
List of Pros of Drug Testing in Sports
1. Stopping Advantages
Whether it’s performance enhancing drugs or narcotics, athletes that are taking drugs have an unfair advantage over their competitors. These drugs can be used to boost performances during sporting events or promote faster healing of muscles and bones after an injury. In fact, many doping athletes find that their careers are able to last much longer than the average person once they start taking performance-enhancing drugs. By testing, you are able to stop this advantage.
2. Preventing Use
Much like implementing a legal system for criminals, testing for drugs gives athletic associations the ability to prevent the use of drugs. This is because more athletes are afraid of having their achievements stripped and being unable to play their favorite sport. The more likely it is that they will fall under a random drug test, the more likely they are to maintain a clean bill of health.
3. Protecting Athletes
Taking performance-enhancing drugs might seem like a good idea at the time, but athletes are rarely aware of whether they are laced with other dangerous ingredients that could negatively affect their quality of life. Making doping illegal limits the possibility of athletes going out of the country to find illegitimate and dangerous drugs.
List of Cons of Drug Testing in Sports
1. Ruining Reputations
Although many believe that if you make the choice to use performance-enhancing drugs, you deserve your name to be ruined, it sincerely does destroy the reputation of athletes around the world. This leads to them being known as someone who was willing to do something illegal in order to become better. It not only ruins their athletic reputation, but their personal reputation as well.
2. Discriminating Between Drugs
It is quite often that athletes are accused of doping because of ingredients that show up on the screen that might be included in harmless items. For example, if an athlete is sick they might take cough medicine, which includes an ingredient that would be flagged by a drug test. This can lead to unfair suspensions.