It’s amazing what athletes will do to achieve higher levels of performance and to get an edge on the rivaled competition. Often people do not realize the long-term effects that result from the decisions they make early in life. This resembles the obvious phenomenon with steroids. Steroids became a spreading exposure to athletes in the Olympics and other major sporting events during the 1950’s. This use of steroids among athletes became apparent when Canadian sprint runner Ben Johnson tested positive for steroid use after winning the gold medal for the 100-meter dash during the 1988 Olympics. Now a skinny fifteen year old can just walk down to the local gym and find sellers to obtain the drug that will make him the idol of all his classmates. Being such an attractive drug, as shown in the analogy above, and seeming harmless to the unaware user, steroids can have a potentially jeopardous effect. Consistently, users, new and experienced, have no knowledge to the dangerous consequences' steroids can have on their minds and bodies. Although steroids cause minimal deaths in our society, banning of steroids is purely justified because steroids have extremely perilous side effects on the unsuspecting user. Though steroids are known as a somewhat dangerous substance, they are legal to possess and consume, and there has not been a true clinical study that proves such possible side effects are linked to medical problems of steroid users. Sure, there have been several cases where someone has died and an autopsy showed the person was using steroids, but this does not mean they are a lethal drug as some medical professionals have stated. Some advocates believe that because steroids are legal, and since it’s the decision of the user to take the drug, steroids are not causing a problem in society. Millions, causing deteriorating effects on their bodies, consume alcohol and cigarettes but there has never been a protest to ...
