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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (61047)	7/18/2007 4:17:04 AM
From: Sully-	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 90947

<< "Does anyone care?" >> Granted, this issue pales in comparison to many of the issues we face today. However, I care in the sense that it troubles me that, like Clinton who made oral sex OK for our nations youth; Bonds use of steroids is going to make it OK for many of our youth to justify using harmful, illegal substances in their quest to achieve fame & glory. << "Nobody is going to die if Bonds hits another ball." >> That's where I disagree most. If Bonds does eventually become the all time home run champion & most folks take the same attitude as you, the message sent to our youth will be that it is OK to cheat & do whatever it takes, including illegal & harmful substances, if they want to increase their chances of achieving fame & wealth. Sure, a lot of good may have come from the quest to beat the system as you noted ("When tests were instituted to find these, and required, the race was on to find drugs the tests wouldn't detect.... it has advanced understanding of human biochemistry and available drugs.."). But at what cost? From my own experience I've been told by numerous doctors that taking even low dose steroids (Prednisone or Medrol) was extremely harmful. So much so that several doctors refused to write prescriptions for it even though it was the only medication that provided some relief from the pain & inflammation from my arthritis & DISH. It took me more than 2 years of fighting tooth & nail for it & trying every other type of medication in the book (all of which did little or nothing) before they caved in & allowed me to take it on a regular basis. The main reason these doctors resisted allowing me to take it was how harmful steroids were. They insisted that the side effects seriously outweighed the benefits. As I noted earlier, I take low dose Medrol, which isn't an anabolic steroid (they have considerable worse side effects). So I can only guess at how dangerous the steroids are that athletes take to bulk up they way they do. IMO, it's the wrong message to send to our youth that we really don't care if you cheat to get ahead, even if you take harmful, illegal drugs to achieve your goals.