Sports can provide a free ticket to an education, and a sizable paycheck for professionals. High school athletes who are star performers can earn college athletic scholarships. Athletes who excel in college can earn very high paychecks if they are able to move on to professional sports. The Mayo Clinic reports that the pressure to score a lucrative professional contract motivates athletes to search out "performance-enhancing" drugs to improve their physical capabilities.
Function
The Mayo Clinic reports that the anabolic-androgenic steroids promote muscle growth, but have serious side effects. Synthetically modified testosterone products, including oxymetholone, methyltestosterone and oxandrolone, not only assist the athlete in maintaining healthy muscles during hard workouts and games, according to the Mayo Clinic, but may also enhance feelings of aggression. Creatine supplement abuse increases body weight in athletes.
Types
Drugs abused by athletes include "stimulants, anabolic-androgenic steroids, erythropoietin and other performance enhancing (ergogenic) substances," according to the Utah Poison Control Center for Health Professionals. "Designer" steroids, introduced in the early 2000s, "have no approved medical use," according to the Mayo Clinic. The synthetics cannot be detected by most drug tests, and as of 2010 have yet to be evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. The full dangers of their use remain undocumented. Drug abuse in sports most frequently involves the use of diuretics and nutritional supplements, including creatine monohydrate.
Health Damage
While claims of performance enhancement cannot be proven, the health hazards linked to drug abuse are clearly documented. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration reports that sex changes such as shrunken testicles and infertility in men, and an increase in body hair in women, result from steroid use. Studies also document severe acne, liver tumors, psychiatric disorders and aggressive behaviors in steroid users. Damage from diuretic abuse includes heart arrhythmias, exhaustion, muscle cramps, dehydration and even death. Creatine supplement abuse leads to cramping, nausea, diarrhea and permanent damage to both the kidneys and the liver, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Testing
Drug abuse by athletes in the 1970s prompted the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to institute mandatory drug testing programs during the mid-1980s. Drug testing by both amateur and professional athletic organizations includes signed and informed consent prior to testing, confidentiality of results, "chain-of-custody of specimens and accurate laboratory testing," according to the Utah Poison Control center for Health Professionals. The NCAA randomly tests Division I and II athletes for diuretics, illegal street drugs, stimulants, anabolic agents, anti-estrogens, peptide hormone and analogues.
Solutions
Prevention of drug abuse by athletes requires passing laws that outline specific drugs that must be avoided before and during amateur and professional competitions. The International Olympic Commission (IOC), USOC and the NCAA currently ban various substances, but each group enforces a different drug standard. Prescription narcotics, for instance, are permitted under NCAA rules, but codeine, tramadol, diphenoxylate, dihydrocodeine, dextromethorphan and propoxyphene, even with valid prescriptions, are outlawed by the both the IOC and USOC. Random testing by an independent laboratory is required for most amateur athletic contests, but other contests require mandatory testing of all participants.
