Drugs And Athletes Term paper

While the free essays can give you inspiration for writing, they cannot be used 'as is' because they will not meet your assignment's requirements. If you are in a time crunch, then you need a custom written term paper on your subject (drugs and athletes)
Here you can hire an independent writer/researcher to custom write you an authentic essay to your specifications that will pass any plagiarism test (e.g. Turnitin). Waste no more time!

Drugs and Athletes

Drugs have been a problem in our society for many years. They have been used and abused by many groups, including professional athletes. It is certainly quite common to hear about or read about athletes and drug use. Although drugs have a lengthy history of use by athletes, they have varied effects on the body and different prevention s.

Much of the world's supply of cocaine is produced in South America. Thousands of years ago, the ancient Incas of Peru chewed coca leaves because they made it possible for them to work in the high mountains of the land for longer periods of time. In the 1880's Bolivian soldiers were given the drug to help them gain endurance and overcome fatigue. One hundred years later as many as 90 percent of the natives of the Andes Mountains in Peru regularly chewed coca leaves. It wasn't until the early years of the 20th century that cocaine increased in popularity among athletes ("Coca"). Cocaine is a naturally occurring alkaloid, extracted from the leaves of the coca plant. It is an excellent local anesthetic and a widely abused illicit drug. Cocaine is an odorless, white powder. The many street names of cocaine include "coke," "snow," "lady," and "gold dust." Street cocaine consists of cocaine hydrochloride that is mixed or "cut" with a number of other white, powdery substances. These include procaine and lidocaine, sugars like lactose and dextrose, stimulants such as dexedrine and caffeine, and other substances including cornstarch, talcum powder, and flour. Street cocaine today contains only 12 to 50 percent cocaine hydrochloride. About 100,000 pounds of cocaine are brought into this county each year. Eighty thousand tons of coca leaf will eventually produce about 200 tons of cocaine ("Coca").

Marijuana was first smoked as a medicine as early as 2737 B.C.E. in China. Marijuana is a mixture of leaves, stems, and flowering tops of the hemp plant. The hemp plant has the highest cannabinoid concentration found in the flowering tops. Marijuana is referred to as grass, pot, tea, or weed. The hemp plant grows wild through most of the world and can be cultivated in any area with a hot season. It grows best in central Asia. The main psychoactive compound in marijuana is delta-9-tetrahydrocannibinal, better known as THC, a strong hallucinogenic that passes from the lungs into the blood and the brain. The THC content of marijuana has increased eight folds in the last few years and some now exceed 10 percent. Hash oil may contain 15 to 30 percent THC. Marijuana is by far the most frequently used illicit drug in the United States (Marijuana).

Steroids are man-made derivatives of testosterone, the male hormone. For performance enhancement, anabolic-andogenic steroids are today's sports drugs of choice. Steroids are a family of synthetic compounds. Anabolic refers

to the ability of steroids to build up muscle tissue. Testosterone came into use in the sporting arena by Russian weight lifters in the 1940's and 1950's. In the 1860's swimmers were charged with "doping" in Amsterdam. In East Berlin, young children were removed from their parents at an early age by government officials. When these children were drilled relentlessly and were shot up with every new drug to enhance performance. These children were prepped with wind sprints at six and steroids at 16; the "sport" vanished from sports (Rosellini 52).

Doctors first used cocaine in the late 1800's as an anesthetic. It was also used during this time to treat fatigue, alcohol, morphine addiction, impotence, stomach disorders, asthma, and many other complaints including depression. Despite evidence that cocaine was habit forming, it was an ingredient in many popular patent medicines and until 1903 it was in Coca-Cola. Most countries prohibit its use except for limited medical purposes. Cocaine is the most reinforcing drug around. There are three main ways to ingest cocaine: snorting, injection, and smoking. Snorting is the most popular. The user cuts the cocaine into lines and snorts it through one or both nostrils using a straw or a rolled up piece of paper. Others inject it directly into the blood stream. Crack is another type of cocaine. It is a hardened, very addictive form that may be smoked directly. Cocaine is very expensive. A single dose may be as little as a quarter of a gram, but it can easily cost $25 on the street.

There are no currently approved uses for marijuana in the Unites States. However, many doctors obtain THC from the federal government under special arrangements in order to prescribe it for cancer patients. THC is effective in reducing the nausea that cancer patients suffer from. Marijuana may stimulate appetite. Marijuana may be smoked or taken by mouth. The same dose of THC is about three times as effective when smoked as when ingested. Marijuana is smoked in the form of hand-rolled cigarettes, but it is also smoked in a variety of pipes. After smoking marijuana, the user has a "high," including an increased sense of well being, relaxation, and sleepiness. Most users learn to avoid overdose by taking only as many inhalations as required to produce the desired "high."

Steroids may have some therapeutic value. The United States Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of selected steroids for treating specific types of anemia, some breast cancers, osteoporosis, endometriosis, and hereditary angioedema, a rare disease involving the swelling of some parts of the body. Steroids are used today by young people that are in a hurry to reach maturity or by someone that hates his skinny body. Most of all, steroids are used by athletes to build muscle mass. They also help muscles to recuperate more quickly from exhaustion or injury.

These enable users to train more frequently and for longer periods of time at a high intensity. Athletes generally take the drugs in dosages 10 to 100 times greater than would be prescribed for therapeutic purposes. Furthermore, athletes often take more than one type of steroid at a time, a practice known as "stacking." Steroids may be taken by injection or orally.

The list of professional and amateur athletes who have become involved with cocaine reads like an index. It is estimated that 40 percent of NFL players regularly use cocaine. Cocaine is more closely identified with baseball. In January 1986, twenty-one players had been implicated in a drawn out trial concerning cocaine sale and use. These players suffered many penalties, including mandatory drug testing, for the rest of their careers, the choice of up to one year suspension or the donation of up to a tenth of a year's salary to a drug prevention program, and community service (Meer 14). Cocaine use among baseball players has increased in recent years, and the drug's debilitating effects have tarnished individual performances, shortened careers, and influenced the outcome of games and pennant races. Tim Raines is a 25 year-old outfielder for the Montreal Expos. Raines told reporters that using cocaine hurt his performance. "I struck out a lot more; my vision was lessened. A lot of times I'd go up to the plate and the balls were at my head. The umpire would call it a strike and I'd start arguing. When you're on drugs, you don't feel you're doing anything wrong." Raines began using cocaine during the game. He would keep the little gram bottle in his pocket and if he was about to steal a base he would slide head first, making sure not to break the bottle (Meer 24).

Cocaine is not an addictive drug in a strictly physical sense. The body does not develop a physical dependence on it nor is there physical withdrawal when a user stops taking it. Cocaine increases body temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure, and it curbs the appetite. Prolonged use can cause the septum, which divides the nostrils, to collapse.

On the other hand, cocaine is psychologically addictive. Heavy users often come to treat it as an emotional crutch, exhibiting "behavior dependence." Users usually have low self -esteem and suffer spells of depression. This has been demonstrated in laboratory tests where monkeys starved themselves to death so as to keep getting cocaine (Worsnop 50).

For a time, most athletes were drawn to cocaine because of its glamorous aura. That image stemmed largely from cocaine's high cost, which gave it a cachet that street drugs could never posses.

Professional athletes often have more money and free time than they can handle. E.J. Junior, a linebacker for the

Cardinals, was hit hard by the deaths of Len Bias and Don Rogers. Both men died of cocaine overdose. The deaths made Junior think about his own life and how it could have been he just as easily. Junior was arrested April 2, 1982 after a raid on his apartment. He pleaded guilty of possessing cocaine and served three years probation and a four game NFL suspension, underwent drug rehabilitation, and began counseling youth groups about the dangers of cocaine (Gordon 102). Charles White, a Heisman trophy winner, was tripped out of his mind on August 21, 1987 at 12:10 p.m. in Brea, California. The Los Angeles Rams were to flying to San Diego that afternoon, but White was going to miss the flight. White had spent the nine hours from 3 a.m. to noon smoking cocaine through a pipe in an unlit, abandoned warehouse. White and his friend were alone, and he felt that many were trying to kill him. He ran out of the warehouse and grabbed a garbage lid to hold in front of him like a shield. He ran into a business screaming, "Someone is trying to kill me!" After about thirty seconds, he ran out and went to a vacant lot, He then saw five policemen coming at him with guns drawn. He screamed, "Don't kill me!" White broke a few tackles before the cops laid him out. He fought so hard that the handcuffs permanently scarred both of his wrists. Four months later, White was in the ProBowl. White traded his handcuffs for a gold Pro Bowl watch and became the Football News Comeback Player of the Year. Eventually, White began using cocaine again and in doing so he almost lost his wife and career. White stopped using once again and he's taking a urine test three times a week. He's staying clean and he's playing (Charles White's Story).

Most people smoke marijuana to experience euphoric properties, including relaxation, intensification of perception, and visual fantasies. Some athletes use marijuana following a sporting event because it allows them to feel relaxed and at peace. However, marijuana has some immediate negative effects. Almost immediately after marijuana is smoked, a user's heart rate increases up to 50 percent higher than normal. Also the tiny blood vessels in the eyes dilate, and the whites of the eyes take a reddish hue. Many people who get high report that they become very hungry or extremely drowsy within fifteen minutes of smoking marijuana. Smoking can also cause the throat and mouth to become dry. People under the influence of marijuana perform poorly on physical tasks.

Marijuana causes many different mental problems. Marijuana can produce a "chronic cannabis syndrome." The syndrome consists of loss of energy, reduced levels of drive and ambition, apathy, depression, agitation, and

withdrawal from previous interests. It's believed that this syndrome can be reversed by abstinence.

Marijuana affects most people socially too. Marijuana ends more players' futures than do all other drugs and alcohol combined (Meer 49). Most of the social effects stem from the mental effects. The depression and lack of interest in things affect the user's socializing ability. Marijuana is the biggest...

You should cite this paper as follows:

MLA Style
. EssayMania.com. Retrieved on 26 May, 2012 from
    <http://essaymania.com/131127/drugs-and-athletes>

More College Papers

Drugs 3 essay
Drugs Drugs are chemical substances that alter mood, behavior, perception, or mental functioning. Throughout history, many cultures have found ways to alter consciousness through the ingestion of substances. In current professional practice, psychoactive substances known as psychotropic drugs hav

Drugs 2 essay
Americas number one problem seems to be their issue on drugs, nobody can honestly say that they have never seen or heard of someone using an illegal drug. This problem is on the rise according to a national statistic (According to samhsa.gov). In the juxtaposition of 1995 through 2000, the drug use

Cloning 2 essay
HUMAN CLONING Human cloning is not a controversial topic; the public regards it as inappropriate. However, other forms of genetic engineering are controversial. These other forms need special consideration. Human cloning is a form of genetic engineering and it is very similar to genetic engineering