Why we should legalize doping for athletes at the college and professional levels

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Why we should legalize doping for athletes at the college and professional levels
Doping among athletes has always been associated with the negative effects it brings while completely neglecting the positive side of the practice. This practice has its advantages, Firstly, the issue of the athlete’s health. With its the legalization, the research on doping will be more directed to its safety when used by the athletes rather than focusing research on efforts to conceal its presence in the body (Kille). This pressure to make the performance enhancement drugs undetectable in the body is usually done at the compromise of the sportsman’s health and safety. Therefore leading to more disastrous outcomes compared to the advantages of restricting or banning it altogether.
Secondly, the policies and regulations related to testing of athletes for doping are costly to the government. Testing an individual athlete is estimated to cost about two hundred dollars per single test, and cross referencing this with the number of athletes plus the number of times and athlete has to be tested in a year. The total expenditure on testing runs to billions of dollars and sometimes the testing process may not be successful in finding out the doping sportspersons (Kille). Athletes have occasionally confessed to doping, but the results of the doping tests come out negative despite the money invested in advanced research. Doping should, therefore, be legalized to save the government all the trouble and the money.

Lastly, doping ensures equity and level playground for the competitors because not all athletes are born with the same genetic structure; some have an advantage over the others. For instance, Eero Mantyranta, a Finnish flier, who won the Olympic title multiple times because she had more red blood cells which increased her performance (Kirby, Moran, & Guerin, 215). Doping hence makes the game competitive and fair and also bridges the gap between the athletes with proper facilities and better health care, with the less privileged ones. Legalizing doping, therefore, levels the playfield, and with competitiveness increased, the experience by fans is improved, and the interest and love for the game are also boosted.

Works Cited
Kille, Leighton. “Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Athletics: Research Roundup – Journalist’s Resource.” Journalist’s Resource. N.p., 2016. Web. 5 Dec. 2016.
Kirby, Kate, Aidan Moran, and Suzanne Guerin. “A qualitative analysis of the experiences of elite athletes who have admitted to doping for performance enhancement.” International journal of sports policy and politics 3.2 (2011): 205-224.