Why Congress Needs a Chill Pill

Kate Zernike, writing in the New York Times, weighs in on the steroids flap. She brings a perspective to the controversy that not one grandstanding Congressional Torquemada dared touch with a bargepole last week during eleven hours of testimony: If baseball players are cheating, isn't everyone else, too?

After all, Americans are relying more and more on a growing array of performance-enhancing drugs. Lawyers take the anti-sleep drug Provigil to finish that all-night brief, in hopes of concentrating better. Classical musicians take beta blockers, which banish jitters, before a big recital. Is the student who swallows a Ritalin before taking the SAT unethical if the pill gives her an unfair advantage over other students? If a golfer pops a beta blocker before a tournament, is he eliminating a crucial part of competition — battling nerves and a chance of choking?

Exactly. Besides, it's the third millennium. Why should baseball and other sports have to stay stuck in a 19th-century bubble? Athletes have a human desire to improve themselves, and the tools are here — from composite-material bats to beta blockers and D-Bol capsules. Why not cut the hypocrisy, level the playing field, and allow everyone to use the whole range of physical and pharmacological performance enhancers?

Truth is, pretty much everyone already uses chemical boosters daily. How many cups of java or cans of Coke do you drink in a day?

"We've gotten very used to already assisting ourselves in other ways," said Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. "No one's going to say, 'Don't drink coffee before the SAT.' No one's going to say, 'Don't smoke cigarettes before the SAT.' And most of the [steroids] we're talking about are far less harmful than nicotine."

Comments

[C.S.Strowbridge]

"Truth is, pretty much everyone already uses chemical boosters daily. How many cups of java or cans of Coke do you drink in a day?"

None.

[Poustman]

Yeah, I don't drink coffee or pop either. But I do agree that they should stop the nonsense and just say 'athletes, do whatever you want'.

[gaw3]

Should it be treated like a (minor) vice, smoking, alcohol? (Please, not caffeine!) That is, you'd have to pay more for health insurance; and kids should be discouraged from getting started?

The second issue is transparency- if so-and-so got a home run record while juiced, that's fine, but should be noted.. This may be hopeless, as atheletes have every incentive to hide their "secret weapon," be it a spitball or whatever.