One(your eyesight) is completely out of your control. The other(steroids) is done on your part willingly for these previously mentioned gains. This is where the crux of my argument lies. If it was cheating why are they not banned as well? I could see if I was in a marksmen competition and I had some fancy retinal lens that improved my sharpshooting ability with eagle-eye accuracy and telescopic vision, but seriously...
You're talking about contact lenses, a tool. I was talking about very high-end corrective surgeries that turn people with very bad vision (like say the Boxer Sugar Ray Leonard who had retinal detachment) into people who can once again perform above-standard in a Sport.
I was partly joking and partly not. Not everyone who has bad vision qualifies for these kinds of surgeries, but I'm sure in athletics you have those who do and those who don't. So why do the ones who do get to utilize it and the ones who don't are just fucked? What is the difference between allowing those who do to get it and perform above their natural ability as opposed to allowing a player who is plagued by injuries to use anabolics to recover. If you know anything about steroids you know that most of the anabolics these athletes get caught useing (Decadurabolin being a prime example) are used primarily for recovery and healing purposes. Not necessarily just strength or speed, but why stop at recovering? At least that's how they think.
My point is where does the line begin or end? Anyone can rationalize any sort of "cheating." But the truth is most athletes would do whatever it takes to earn their pay. If you don't want athletes cheating then the game is what needs to be re-organized, not the restrictions necessarily on what the athletes can and cannot do to succeed. You don't have this problem in most fight sports because not so much rides on the fighters as rides on Professional Baseball and Football Players, or Olympic Athletes.
It's a touchy subject no doubt. But if we're not going to allow athletes to enhance their performance, they SHOULD NOT enhance their performance? Correct? No. Incorrect, there's too much grey area in that respect and frankly, the reasons given by Congress and the general public just do not add up for why anabolics is cheating, and all the other shit people do to perform better isn't. You want to see what would happen if you allowed anabolics in Pro Sports? You have not but to look no further than Pro Bodybuilding. They have "natural" divisions, those athletes have been juiced for years, you have some who compete as close to all-natural as they can and still place well. That playing field is as level as any other in Pro Athletics. You do what you have to do to win. Period.
I hope you are joking. Yes people abuse nasal decongestants, but people also abuse the #1 drug in the world: food. I was referring to those drugs which are prescription-only. My point is that if a significant percentage of normal people who take the medicine and are not experts end up screwing their perscription, then it should only be administered by a trained medical professional.
I'm not debating your point, but I'm not joking either. Anabolics ARE only LEGALLY administered by qualified Medical Professionals. They are no easier to get a hold of than any other street drug, all you have to have is the cash and know a couple of people. They are not "easier" to abuse than anything else. The reason they are being abused IMO is largely because of mis-education on them, not any lack of control on them. In-fact if you look at current trends the more taboo they become the worse it gets, the more curious about it kids become, because our Government has this terrible tendency to stand against many things that benefit human health. So there is mistrust. Plus you have bullshit like the Congressions stance on Anabolics in Pro Baseball. Jose Canseco comes out and tells the truth about it and he's basically black-balled by any media un-willing to capitalize on bad publicity. Rafiel Palmiero lies about it, gets caught, and Congress commends him for assisting AFTER getting caught lying. So what does that tell kids? Tell the truth = you are a piece of shit rat bastard. Lie and get caught = you're a jewel of a human being. THERE is the problem. Hypocrisy.