Try baseball as just one example. This is an extract from the recent US media. Amphetamine performance enhancement abuse has rocked US baseball.
"It's going to have a lot bigger effect on the game than steroid testing," said Chipper Jones, the Atlanta Braves' All-Star third baseman. "It's more rampant than steroids. ... I think the fringe players will be weeded out."
In recent years, players have estimated that between 50 and 80 percent of ballplayers have used amphetamines. A USA Today survey last year found that 35 percent of players thought at least half were using them. The ban will heighten the physical and mental strain of the season, the aforementioned veteran said.
"The manager comes to you and what are you going to say?... 'Oh, no, sorry. I can't go today.' I used it on days when I felt shut down, to keep my name in the lineup," he said. "You're going to see a lot of guys asking the manager for a day off."
Greenies, a nickname coined by ballplayers because of the color of the pills, were introduced to the game in the 1940s. These amphetamines speed up the heart rate and have been proven to fight fatigue, increase alertness and sharpen reaction time. Athletes have used them to challenge the limits of endurance ? and mask the accompanying pain.
Amphetamines also are addictive and can cause heart attacks and strokes. They contributed to the first documented deaths from performance-enhancing drugs more than 45 years ago.
Players have ordered pills on the Internet or brought them to spring training after playing in winter leagues in Latin America, where amphetamines are available over-the-counter.
Now, there's a rush to figure out other ways to survive the season.
The veteran player points to the energy drink in a bright blue bottle atop his spring training locker.
"If they ever ban that, then I'll definitely have to say something," he said.
An open secret
Steroids have all but ruined baseball's image. So when the owners finally toughened up the drug policy, they decided to target more than the anabolic substances that have made headlines in the long-ball era.
Commissioner Bud Selig, in a letter to players' union chief Donald Fehr last year, made clear his intention to erase all traces of performance-enhancing drugs.
"It's time to put the whispers about amphetamine use to bed once and for all,'' Selig wrote. "To the extent that our culture has tolerated the use of these substances, the culture must change."
Baseball and amphetimines
Now does a certain aging star midfielder who could just keep running through final quarters, spewing his guts out but staying on the paddock who has admitted being addicted to amphetamines and was played in a Grand Final whilst an addict ring any bells?
"It's going to have a lot bigger effect on the game than steroid testing," said Chipper Jones, the Atlanta Braves' All-Star third baseman. "It's more rampant than steroids. ... I think the fringe players will be weeded out."
In recent years, players have estimated that between 50 and 80 percent of ballplayers have used amphetamines. A USA Today survey last year found that 35 percent of players thought at least half were using them. The ban will heighten the physical and mental strain of the season, the aforementioned veteran said.
"The manager comes to you and what are you going to say?... 'Oh, no, sorry. I can't go today.' I used it on days when I felt shut down, to keep my name in the lineup," he said. "You're going to see a lot of guys asking the manager for a day off."
Greenies, a nickname coined by ballplayers because of the color of the pills, were introduced to the game in the 1940s. These amphetamines speed up the heart rate and have been proven to fight fatigue, increase alertness and sharpen reaction time. Athletes have used them to challenge the limits of endurance ? and mask the accompanying pain.
Amphetamines also are addictive and can cause heart attacks and strokes. They contributed to the first documented deaths from performance-enhancing drugs more than 45 years ago.
Players have ordered pills on the Internet or brought them to spring training after playing in winter leagues in Latin America, where amphetamines are available over-the-counter.
Now, there's a rush to figure out other ways to survive the season.
The veteran player points to the energy drink in a bright blue bottle atop his spring training locker.
"If they ever ban that, then I'll definitely have to say something," he said.
An open secret
Steroids have all but ruined baseball's image. So when the owners finally toughened up the drug policy, they decided to target more than the anabolic substances that have made headlines in the long-ball era.
Commissioner Bud Selig, in a letter to players' union chief Donald Fehr last year, made clear his intention to erase all traces of performance-enhancing drugs.
"It's time to put the whispers about amphetamine use to bed once and for all,'' Selig wrote. "To the extent that our culture has tolerated the use of these substances, the culture must change."
Baseball and amphetimines
Now does a certain aging star midfielder who could just keep running through final quarters, spewing his guts out but staying on the paddock who has admitted being addicted to amphetamines and was played in a Grand Final whilst an addict ring any bells?
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