Dear future President,

Every year, numerous athletes take drugs to make themselves better at the sport that they play. I believe that you or someone else who has the power to ban drugs in sports must do so. Famous athletes are getting hurt, losing their careers, and even getting caught.  Once people take drugs, they will most likely be addicted to it.

When taking drugs during sports (like steroids and other forms of doping), they have a negative effect on long-term health. Users of these enhancers are hurting themselves in the long run. Drugs can “Weaken the immune system, increasing susceptibility to infections.” This is the most important reason for trying to ban steroids and other forms of doping from athletic competitions.

Taking drugs has an unfair advantage on the other competitors. Instead of taking 10 grams of the drug, they'll take 20 or 30 or 40, and a vicious cycle simply gets bigger. The use of performance-enhancing drugs is not accidental; it is planned and deliberate with the sole objective of getting an unfair advantage.

Jose Fernandez was a professional baseball player. He died on September 25, 2016 in a fatal boat accident. During the accident, Jose had cocaine and alcohol in his system.  Although these were not enhancement drugs, it makes you wonder if the acceptance of drugs in sports made this easier for him to say to himself that it's okay to do any type of drug.  Pro players are role models to us kids. The number that they wear on their backs, kids want to be like them, so kids do what they do. Kids have dreams to become stars, but in this century, who knows because of drugs.They emulate their style of play. And they are influenced by their drug use. When a professional athlete admits to using steroids, the message young athletes hear is not always the one that is intended. Young athletes often believe that steroid use by their role models gives them permission to use. That it is simply part of what one must do to become an elite athlete.

I love sports, especially baseball and people would ask me if I have done anything to help me get stronger or faster and I would say no. I believe that if I did something, I could ruin my chances of playing high school baseball or even going pro. I believe that if pro players didn’t do drugs, they can possibly be much better than what they are now. High schoolers are dropping out of sports because they are getting hurt by the drug that they take.

It doesn't matter whether the player's production, either home runs or hits, was drug enhanced once, twice or ten times. It doesn't matter; it's still cheating and “impugning the integrity of the game and the player's accomplishments”... Those great players currently enshrined in the “Hall of Fame achieved that honor strictly on the merits of their God-given talents” and not by utilizing artificial means to enhance their accomplishments. The game has been tarnished by steroid charges, and the issue of enshrinement in baseball's Hall of Fame of players who have used steroids, regardless of their career statistics, is a critical issue that may well impact the standards and integrity of the Hall of Fame itself.

I know that drugs are very dangerous and that is why I would never do them and I believe that you, Mr./Mrs. Future president, should do something about this tragic cause. I know that you’re a busy person, but please take a minute to do something about it.

Sincerely,

Yeicob

Works Cited

http://sportsanddrugs.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=002352

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/29/us/miami-jose-fernandez-toxicology/