In a society that pops a pill for every conceivable malady, in a society that rewards athletes with hundreds of millions of dollars, in a society that values money over all else, we must recognize that performance-enhancing drugs are rampant and widespread in all professional sports, and we're not going to get rid of them by vilifying the users.We've tried that in sports and in our other high-profile, punish-the-poor-and-slap-the-wealthy-on-the-wrist war on drugs.
Ben Johnson lost his gold medal. We ridiculed East German sprinters and Chinese swimmers. Nancy Reagan said "just say no" while politicians locked up black folk and won voting support.
Finally, some sanity is creeping into the mainstream coverage of steroids. Also, it appears Albert Pujols' personal trainer distributed Human Growth Hormone, a banned but difficult to detect steroid. In moderation, there are little if no side effects, and it made probably made Pujols an immediately better player. I bet 300 major league players are doing it - it still doesn't make the 298 of them who aren't Pujols and Bonds Ruthian sluggers.
hgh isn't a steroid is it? I thought it was just a hormone.
btw, if you ever read up on hgh, it sounds like a wonder drug to athletes. Basically your muscles heal faster and you bounce back like a teenager after tough workouts and games. I've heard nothing but good things about hgh.
What's odd is I hear baseball officials claim it's hard to measure hgh, but the olympics and tour de france have been keeping it out of their contests for years. Word on the street is the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta was the last time you could use hgh and get away with it. Why can't baseball keep its athletes as clean as those other major sports?
Posted by: Matt Haughey | June 09, 2006 at 11:20 PM