Going! Going! Gone! Your favorite slugger just hit a game winning homerun and you re

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1 James Krein Economic Essay on Something Curious The University of Akron September 8, 2006 Why Do Professional Athletes Take Steroids and Other Banned Substances? In this paper I will discuss the reasons why professional athletes feel the need to take illegal drugs to supplement their on field performance. I will use cost-benefit analysis to illustrate the risks and rewards of taking these drugs. I will show that for many athletes money and fame are more important than any long-term physical effects. Going! Going! Gone! Your favorite slugger just hit a game winning homerun and you re jumping up and down on every piece of furniture in the house. But was that 420 foot shot the result of god given talent and an infinite number of hours in the team weight room or did he have some pharmaceutical assistance? Over the past decade, evidence has mounted that has forced us to ask such questions. It s not just baseball, a wide variety of other sports are facing questions about the integrity of its athletes. There are several different types of performance enhancing drugs taken by athletes today. The most prominent and widely known are Anabolic and Androgenic Steroids, but also include Human Growth Hormones (HGH), Tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), and Cortisone. 1 They can be taken one of four ways, either by injection, with skin cream, by pills, or through rectal suppository. Knowingly illegal and immoral, steroids and other performance enhancing drugs have become popular training complements used for a number of different reasons. So why do athletes continue to dope themselves? At the most basic level, athletes see these drugs as tools to gain a competitive advantage over both other teams and other players looking to take their positions. Professional athletics has become a what have you done for me lately industry driven by success where steroids have become a way to stay in the game. For baseball players, steroids provide added power and also increase concentration at the plate. Pitchers use them to increase pitch velocity and to quicken 1 Freeman, Ann. The Dope on Steroids: Why Some Athletes Take the Risk The University of Minnesota News (Published August 21, 2004) k.html

2 recover time between starts. Many Olympians used performance enhancers for the same reasons. Weightlifters desire an immediate surge of power and rapid recovery while sprinters, distance runners, cross-country skiers, and cyclists use them to perform continuously during endurance competitions. For these athletes as well, they are also used to replace adrenaline, testosterone, and other hormones created in the human body naturally. Other athletes such as football players and bodybuilders take them to increase strength and put on more lean muscle mass while reducing fat. Cortisone is a local anesthetic injected into the body at a source of pain in order to numb that pain for a short period of time enabling athletes to perform temporarily. As a result of these performance increases, these athletes are rewarded with yearly multi-million dollar salaries. Their increased production gives them the upper hand at the bargaining table and makes them highly sought after as promotional representatives for a wide variety of consumer products. For aging athletes it gives them the extra bit of energy needed to keep younger and more talented players away from their spots. The exact opposite holds true for young athletes who use them to try to get recognized by professional teams as replacements for aging talent. It also has allowed great athletes to become exceptional athletes and implant their names in each sport s history and record book. The greatest benefit over all others though, is financial security for themselves and their families because of the risk of injury and the short lifespan of today s athlete. Like all things to good to be true, these performance enhancers are taken at the risk of some serious costs, physically, mentally, and socially. Scientific studies have shown that steroid usage can have negative effects on the bodies of males and females as early as their teens. These early side-effects include increased acne and, disturbances in the maturation of the skeletal system and sexual development. 2 Other physical side-effects that carry into adolescence are the thickening of the larynx that leads to a deepened voice, high blood pressure, increased possibility of stroke, nausea, weight gain, the development of breasts in men, male impotence, facial hair in women, liver disease and failure, internal pooling of blood, and lesions in major arteries due to compressed blood flow. 2 Rogol, Alan D., Yesalis III, Charles E. Anabolic-Androgenic Steroids and Athletes: What are the Issues? Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. Vol. 74, No. 3 (1992) Pg. 467

3 There are also a number of mental side effects associated with steroid use. The most well known are the very aggressive mood swings caused by steroid usage. Observers have noted the range of emotions during and after an individual becomes dependent on steroids to include rage and aggression toward themselves and others, as well as depression possibly severe enough to lead to thoughts of suicide. 3 In the recent past, social costs have highly publicized in the media, focusing largely on Major League Baseball sluggers, world class cyclists, and prominent track stars. 3 Rogol, Alan D., Yesalis III, Charles E. Pgs

4 Figure 1: This picture points to the different areas of the body and the effects that Steroids have on each part of the body. Direct screening for performance enhancers has been adopted by nearly all major professional athletic leagues and associations. Tests are both predetermined at different segments of an event or season and many also call for random off-season testing increasing the chances that those using get caught. Ramifications vary widely by each league or association,

5 but what seems to be most endangering to today s athlete is the public scrutiny for a positive test, proof that they have been cheating. A positive test also comes with financial punishment as well. One example I can site is the Major League Baseball Drug Testing Policy, since 2004 it has called for a 10 day suspension following the first positive test, 30 days for the second, 60 days for the third, one year for the fourth, and a lifetime ban from the game for a fifth positive test. 4 Other anti-doping associations like the Olympic Anti-Doping Assoc. call for a one year ban after the first test and a lifetime ban after the second. All are suspensions without pay and many athletes who test positive are released by their teams and may be blacklisted hindering future employment opportunities. As Nancy Cullen, a Sports Psychologist for the University of Minnesota puts it, the temptation to use steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs simply comes down to the rigors and pressure of elite competition and the desire to win. 5 The costs as we can see are devastating to the athlete and have the ability to result in death. Meanwhile, the benefits are plenty and the allure of the rewards that come with them, fame, fortune, and power, have no doubt convoluted the minds of many athletes. Natural or Synthetic, it is up to the individual to choose the path that they believe maximizes their utility. References: Bodley, Hal. Baseball Officials Announce Tougher Steroid Policy U.S.A. Today (January 12, 2005) Freeman, Ann. The Dope on Steroids: Why Some Athletes Take the Risk The University of Minnesota News (Published August 21, 2004) etes_take_the_risk.html Rogol, Alan D., Yesalis III, Charles E. Anabolic-Androgenic Steroids and Athletes: What are the Issues? Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. Vol. 74, No. 3 (1992) Pgs Figure 1 taken from: 4 Bodley, Hal. Baseball Officials Announce Tougher Steroid Policy U.S.A. Today (January 12, 2005) 5 Freeman, Ann. The Dope on Steroids: Why Some Athletes Take the Risk The University of Minnesota News (Published August 21, 2004) k.html

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