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Originally Posted by alnorth
The only reason for me, and its a good enough reason to enforce a ban in my opinion, is that steroid abuse is very, very unhealthy and can shorten lifespan.
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The detrimental health effects of steroids have been greatly exaggerated in the mass media. Sure, abusing steroids can be unhealthy...but abusing any drug is generally unhealthy and we don't make all of those illegal.
Here's an interview with Dr. Norman Fost on the issue of steroids in sports:
http://www.steroidlaw.com/steroid-law-45.html
And if you don't want to read all that, here's a good short speech he gave that summarizes his points:
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If you dont ban it, then you basically de facto require its use by all ballplayers, and you condemn them to all the damage they cause.
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One could argue that by banning them, you are simply driving the players to acquire such drugs on the black market and use them without a doctor's supervision. If you were to legalize them, you could medically monitor their use among the players, decreasing the health risks involved.