Should drug use get a professional sports athlete banned for life?

Um....Honestly, we all make mistakes, some much more severe in consequences than others. My first instinct says, you do the crime, you do the time, but in a world that can prove to be extremely unforgiving, I'd like to believe that there is always room to recreate oneself. So a harsh punishment is in order, harsh enough to deter most from going there. Not so sure if eternal banishment is fair.

I don't know what should happen, but I think something should!! This whole circus before congress over baseball ticked me off - here's a big old investigation, look at all these guys who did drugs, and the end of it all seems to be essentially "oh, how interesting". Nothing is happening to these guys with the exception of Roger Clemens and presumably anyone else who lied under oath. But if you told the truth - yup, I did it - no consequence. Sure, your rep might be tarnished a little, but you've still got loads of money, all your records, etc. It's annoying and seems to send the wrong message to kids!

just get these athletes what they deserve! but why the hell is CONGRESS dealing with this? last time i checked congress should be investigating oh i don't know the whole iraq thing (maybe trying bush and cheney as war criminals) or i dont know maybe the CRASHING DOLLAR???

seriously what a waste of time.

For drug enhancement, a person should be barred from any sports related activity, especially writing a book about why they did it, for an amount of time to be chosen by an outside counsel. A lifetime ban should only apply to those who were unco-operative and proven to be liars.
How does Football, Basketball, Hockey and other major sports stay out of this mess? Doesn't that strike anyone else as odd?

Please!

Legalize drugs! Make the consequences the users' problem, and move on. This criminalization of users or possessors of a single reefer is why one in one hundred Americans is behind bars to the tune of billions annually. This is some ridiculous madness, especially when we can make many times as much money legally selling drugs to regular users, making the consequences of recreational drug use the user's concern and legal responisibility the same way we do with liquor.

Be honest. If America grew the great stuff, we'd be able to get blunts, snorts, roids, HGH, crystals, and rocks from the value menu at Mickey D's. We're unnecessarily ruining folks' lives on a crazy humbug when we could cut some red tape, making it ALL legal.

I agree with 96. They have legal OTC drugs and legal doctor drugs that have serious side effects, but its not stopping anybody from using them. Just like smoking, they know it's bad, but they do it anyway.

I think the government should stop wasting time on illegal drug use and more time on things more important. Sure, drugs can stay illegal for all I care, but what needs to be done isn't getting done because everyone is too focused on the minor things.

Stop worrying about Athletes and drugs and start worrying about Iraq and Terrorists. And the recession we seem to be heading into.

Thanks.

I did not read this article, I don't care if this guy takes drugs, but as others have said, what Congress is wasting time on is of importance. Lets see, GMO, Pesticides and Herbicides on our food supply, not to mention all the crap dumped in our waterways. Chemtrails, shady shadow governments, rigged voting boxes, cooperate/lawmaker cronyism.....uh...yeah....sure.....now that I put it that way, makes perfect sense to waste their efforts on some measley issue; oh yeah did I mention a war we are in?

Let's say that an athlete takes whatever they want to get the edge and, later, a kid does likewise and dies as a result. Let's say, your kid.
Still no big deal?

The athletes knew it was against the rules, but they did it anyway.

Unless there are grey areas in what constitutes an illegal performance enhancing drug, then I see the answer is pretty obvious.

Comparing presidents to major athletes? That's...that's....incredulous!

"Unless there are grey areas in what constitutes an illegal performance enhancing drug, then I see the answer is pretty obvious."

That's just it. Until they get caught, it's all a gray area. Sports organizations make billions of dollars annually off these juiced athletes, even though everyone is aware of the rules regarding doping, drinking, and drug abuse. Organized sports is well aware of the effects and symptoms of every chemical available for abuse, reliable sources of these chemicals, and the best practices in use for masking the use of these products. This ruse of spot dropping for impromptu testing is an unnecessary way of entertaining us. Any time a young woman who weeks ago was 4ft9in at barely a buck-5 now stands 5ft10in looking like Schwarzenegger in drag, you pretty much know something ain't right. They use this knowledge as a leash for their athletes to keep every one in line. No one hears about this steroids, human growth hormone, booze, and drugs until there is a Darryl Strawberry, or a Barrie Bonds, or until after we've buried Flo-Jo. After ten or more 'questionable' events do we hear about Clemens in reports from some congressional hearing. Even then, it is impossible to meet out justice effectively because everyone is so guilty.

The way I see it, most athletes had to enter the professional level of their sport with a huge amount of skill and talent already developed before the use of any synthetic enhancement was ever considered. But, then, these athletes perform at peak, finally sustain injuries, and then just get older over the years. If steroids permit them to sustain that winning edge, and they themselves are willing to risk the potential health affects of roids and HGH later on, then these leagues and sports authorities need to let it go. It is simply unfair for organizations to make these obscene sums of money off the players they know to be in violation, only to abandon these athletes and contribute to their ruin once they are caught by authorities in violation.

Obviously everybody is happy to have a winning franchise with a roster overrun with shining stars who perform outstandingly. The leagues will just have to inform these athletes when they sign them that they LEGALLY can't come back and sue an organization for whom they willingly and wittingly put themselves out there in this dangerous way.

Yeah, lets get that young girl. I doubt that she went out cruising to get the damned drugs. They are so prevalent she probably didn't realize how bad they are. Make some rules starting now and keep after it. How can they single out a few to punish?

I think that in regards to certain drugs, particularly stimulants, that athletes should be banned. However, when using certain depressants, I think the athletes should only get the standard legal punishment, I don't think any banning should be involved then.

Lets take pot for example. As Robin Williams pointed out in his 2000 live on Broadway show, pot enhances many things. Color, taste, texture, but you are certainly not fucking empowered. If an athlete can actually win while stoned out of their ass on weed, then they should be legally prosecuted by the local police, but they should not be banned for abusing an illegal substance that does the complete opposite of performance enhancement.

I think that would certainly curb the use of the drug. Whether or not that's a fair or even a good way of stopping drugs being used is another question altogether.