Performance Enhancing Drugs: History, Medical Effects & Policy

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to serve as a general treatise on the vast topic of use of performance enhancing drugs in athletic competition. It begins by laying out the extensive history of doping in sports, from the ancient Romans to the East German Olympic swim team to the steroids scandal in baseball. The paper moves on to describe and discuss the many medical effects that use of performance enhancing drugs might trigger. The paper concludes by discussing the appropriateness of anti-doping policy in general by analyzing and scrutinizing the general strands of arguments that are used to support bans on doping. While many rationales are rejected, a few are ultimately accepted and they justify the implementation of anti-doping policies.