Panelists answered the following: Should professional sports leagues allow the use of performance-enhancing drugs with regulations and monitoring?
Richard Place: “I really have a difficult time with this problem. Some things that are performance-enhancing are legal and some aren’t. If it’s approved by government then it’s ok but if it’s discovered by a witch doctor it’s not. I really have better things to worry about then a spoiled millionaire athlete hanging on to his job.”
Ruth Erickson: “No, once you allow one PED, then it opens the floodgates to more!”
Marty Richman: “No because we already have ‘regulations and monitoring’ and athletes beat that system all the time. The penalties have to be serious. Except in one case, the latest batch were only identified because a supplier’s employee turned them in. PEDs would also become more commonplace in college, AAU sports, and eventually high school. We want the world’s best athletes – not the world’s best druggists.”
Mary Zanger : “Although I prefer athletes to be drug free with body building the old-fashioned way like natural ability, diet and exercise, why not tax drugs and allow societal judgement to prevail? Societal fantasy wishes ‘clean’ living plus high ideals and morals.”
