4 ms·
The problem with performance enhancing drugs isn't their use per se, it's the fact that competition at a high level more or less forces you to use any and all m
by jknoepfler 9y ago
The problem with performance enhancing drugs isn't their use per se, it's the fact that competition at a high level more or less forces you to use any and all means at your disposal to win, and this forces would-be winners to consume large, unhealthy, long-term unstable and harmful amounts of drugs.
People who manage sports associations are comfortable with people sacrificing time and fortune for their passion, but they are not (in general) comfortable with creating an environment in which people must sacrifice their health and well-being to compete.
PEDs in some form should probably be (and in fact are, in most states) legal for personal use, but I believe that anything with the potential to cause long term bodily harm when abused should be banned in organized competition by the organizers (not some state, unless it's a publicly funded athletic organization). I further believe that unless demonstrated to be safe, most medications should be assumed to be damaging, within reason. There should be a long, slow, tedious path to approval.
That's the world view that, to me, does the best job of creating a healthy environment for athletic competition.
- jakubp 9y agoAs a sports outsider I see the problem with doping to be moral and societal. Moral: we agree on some rules, compete, and the guy who won may have broken a trivial rule to get an advantage. How is this acceptable? Societal: I'm not a fan of spectator sports in general, but... when people become rich and famous and powerful by cheating, that probably strenghtens the view in many people that winning at the expense of others and ignoring our own earlier declarations is more important than cooperation, fair conduct, honesty etc. Not a world I would like to live in.
- dlwdlw 9y agoI think sports have always been war games of sorts in that they carve out boundaries of in groups and out groups. People overwhelming support the team that they identify with (geographically determined for the most part) regardless if they win a lot or lose a lot because it is not enough to win, you need to win with identity. To unleash "win at any means" is far too close to war itself which subverts the intention of the game to replace war.