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Chloe Arkin

Professor McGriff

ENC 1102

3/7/2020

Sports and Drugs

In high school and college, there are a lot of opportunities to try: sports, classes,

careers, relationships, or hobbies. One major opportunity for adolescents to try is drugs,

whether it’s prescription drugs, recreational drugs, alcohol, smoking, or vaping. Drugs are

any chemical that affects or changes the way the body functions. Some of those drugs are PEDs,

marijuana, alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, supplements, steroids, LSD, acid, cocaine, etc. When

taken, all of these drugs change the way the body would normally function. Teenagers are

drawn to the excitement and riskiness of trying new things. Sometimes students are peer

pressured into trying something bad to look better in front of others. Adolescents use

drugs or vapes because they think it makes them look cooler and older. About 60% of

high school students have used or tried any of those drugs and 37% of college students use any

type of those drugs on a daily basis. Our culture promotes drugs because people will say that the

effects are good and make you feel better. Companies make these products to look interesting

and fun, which makes adolescents want to buy and try them. Student athletes are

susceptible to the use of drugs because some drugs are said to improve performance, or they

want to feel the experience. There are drugs and some substances like steroids and caffeine that

can benefit an athlete’s performance. The withdrawal effects and after substance use effects
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always outweigh the good of drug use. Student athletes should not abuse the use of drugs

because it will not be beneficial to their improvement of their sport or activity. Athletic careers,

Athletic performance, physical health, and mental health are all affected by adolescent drug

abuse.

Athletes can negatively affect their future athletic careers by using drugs. Student athletes

follow a sports code of conduct, where they aren’t allowed to do or be in the presence of drugs,

alcohol, or vapes. There are multiple athletes that get put on sport probation or kicked off their

teams for getting caught vaping, drinking, or using drugs. For example, at Bartram Trail High

School, a student on the track team is one of the tops in the state for the track events they

participate in. The student has been caught several times with marijuana at school and has been

recently kicked off the track team. The reason the athlete was removed from the team was

because he broke the Athlete Code of Conduct. The Athlete threw a party at his house which had

contraband. The party was shut down and when the coaches found out that their top runner

broke the few rules they had about drugs and drinking; they dismissed the athlete from the track

team. Imagine how much better of an athlete this student could have been if they did not put

those harmful substances into their body. Getting in trouble for drugs will affect the student in

the future. The student will now have a record and colleges will not accept those types of

students with that record. The student could have been number one in the state and could have

received scholarships to colleges. No athlete wants to spiral down that hole of drug abuse.

Any drug use among teens can affect their athletic performance in sports. Athletes that

use drugs are lowering their rate of achievement. In the article, “Sport Motivation and Doping in

Adolescent Athletes” by Jiri Mudra, “The use of PEDs violates the spirit of fair play and

represents a significant health concern because doping has been linked to a number of health
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issues, including cardiovascular [disease]”. The use of performance enhancing drugs might

make an athlete look better and play better, but after so much drug use, it will damage the body.

Using so much of a drug can damage the heart. Having heart damage is the worst thing possible

for athletes because it will cause problems with pumping blood throughout the body. When your

body does not receive enough blood with nutrients in it, then your muscles will not be able to

perform as well as they could. Heart problems can cause risks for an athlete while they are on a

field playing a game. These drugs lower athletic achievements because the athlete is only able to

perform well for a short amount of time before damage kicks in and decreases their athletic

performance and achievement.

Another way drug use can affect an athlete’s physical performance is by increasing their

tiredness. If an athlete is more tired, then they cannot perform at their best ability. In the article,

“Smoking and Physical Activity” from Cleveland Clinic, “young people who are heavy smokers

also experience coughing, and more frequent and severe respiratory illnesses”. Not being able to

breath while on a run or working out allows less oxygen to enter the respiratory system and

circulate through the bloodstream. Less oxygen in the bloodstream means less energy for

muscles to move and workout. So, less oxygen equals less physical activity because the body

gets tired faster. It tires the body because there is less energy in the body to use. This does not

help an athlete become better, faster, or achieve any of their goals. Athletes who smoke, either

marijuana or tobacco products, are harming their own performance by not giving their bodies

enough energy to perform as well as they could. Cleveland Clinic also reports that, a “decrease

in oxygen will reduce a smoker’s physical endurance”. This statement is agreeable because

if a young teenager puts harmful chemicals into their lungs, then they cannot breathe normally.

An athlete needs all the lung capacity they can get to be able to compete and play in games well.
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Damaging the lungs causes breathing problems and people need oxygen to run and play sports.

Endurance is needed for athletes to be able to maintain their skill or ability for a longer period.

To be able to maintain the endurance level, the body needs to be able to go through aerobic

respiration. The drugs that student athletes take are affecting the amount of oxygen they can

breathe in to be able to do aerobic respiration, which declines their endurance. Smoking any

drug or substance that can harm the lungs will affect an athlete's performance in a

negative way by decreasing their endurance. The decrease in endurance levels from drugs

connects with the body being more tired because the energy levels are lowered.

The use of drugs declines the physical health of adolescent athletes. Adolescents do

not think about the negative effects, but the pleasure drugs give them. Vaping, smoking, or

using tobacco products all contain chemicals that are harmful. In this new era, there is

new technology for most things. There is a new way of smoking tobacco or nicotine

through electronic devices with different juice flavors. People think vapes are better than

cigarettes but vapes also have many chemicals in them. According to the study, “Effects

of Flavoring Compounds Used in Electronic Cigarette Refill Liquids on Endothelial and

Vascular Function” by Gerald Wölkart, and published by the Public Library of Science,

vape products and their juice have “ several common flavors may scavenge nitric

oxide (NO) and cause endothelial dysfunction”. Endothelial dysfunction is when the

inner lining of arteries fails to work properly. This can cause high blood pressure, blood

clotting, or a lack of nutrients transported in the bloodstream. Too much nitric oxide in

the blood is not healthy for the body and adding more of it from vape chemicals would

make it worse. Having high blood pressure for an athlete could be very dangerous while

working out and competing. The body also needs a proper flow of nutrients to muscles
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for physical activity. As an athlete, cardio is very important to being physically fit. The

chemicals from vapes can cause a good athlete to have serious health problems. If some

of these health problems worsen like blood clotting, it could be fatal. These health issues

will not let student athletes be successful in their sport because it will slow them down,

feel weak, and feel tired. This affects adolescents' physical health and fitness in a very

negative way.

Another way drugs can affect a student athletes physical health is through

smoking. Smoking is a straight pathway to the lungs and inside the rest of the body.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, their article “Marijuana” reads,

“marijuana smoke is an irritant to the throat and lungs and can cause a heavy cough

during use” (Page 1). Teenage athletes are already ruining their lungs so young by

smoking at such a young age. Having a cough affects your breathing and definitely

makes it harder to breathe while exercising. The less a person is able to breathe in, the

less exercise they will be able to do. This has an alarming impact on the health issues of

adolescents. The physical damage smoking causes is to the respiratory system. The lungs

are a major organ needed to keep the flow of oxygen through the body. Smoking

“contains levels of volatile chemicals and tar” (National Institute on Drug Abuse), which

can block the flow of oxygen into the lungs. Not only can this blockage in the lungs

cause lung cancer, respiratory problems, and airway inflammation, it will also decline an

athlete's ability to play sports. How is a young adult supposed to stay physically fit if the

inside of their body is unhealthy? They will not be able to because the health problems

on the inside will show on the outside during a performance, practice, or game. To be a
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good athlete, you have to keep the body healthy and clean to be able to perform at the

best ability.

Drugs have chemicals in them that can attach to brain receptors and affect the mental

health of athletes. In a study of “Mediating effect of Depression”, done by Marija Milic, her

results concluded, that an “association of smoking with impairment of the HRQoL among

students in two different settings was mediated by higher levels of depressive symptoms”. In the

study, she was testing college students to see if smoking played a role in their mental health. The

author tested non-smokers and smokers of their mental and physical health and it was shown that

non-smokers have a healthier quality of life, while smokers have a lower quality and more likely

to have a more depressive mental health. The mental health of an athlete is very important to

their sport because an athlete must stay focused and motivated to win or make a good move. If

an athlete smokes and it makes them have more depressive moods, then the athlete isn't going to

perform well. Being depressed will make someone less motivated for goals and objectives in

their life. Especially as an adolescent in high school or college, their brains and bodies are still

developing and placing more chemicals and hormones into the body will be worse for their

mental health. Athletes need to have a good quality of life and a stable mental health to perform

at their best ability.

Another substance that can affect an athlete's mental health is alcohol. Alcohol has

chemicals in it that can be dangerous and harmful to people. Since teenagers aren't fully

developed yet, it is even more harmful to younger people. Alcohol has addictive chemicals and is

a depressant, which changes the job of neurotransmitters. In the Website, Michael’s House, an

article, “Why Is Alcohol called a Depressant?” explains that depressants “impair and slow both

physical and psychological activity”. So, alcohol, “reduces a person’s ability to make rational
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decisions” (Michael’s House). Teenagers' brains are damaged by this because the brain is not

fully developed and impairing the skills teens need for decision making is killing the growth of

the brain. The damage to this part of the brain is harmful because it will slow reaction times

needed for quick movement and agility in sports. An athlete needs to be able to make fast

movements and fast thoughts on what is the next move in a certain situation during a game or

practice. For example, in baseball, the batter needs to be able to swing the bat at a certain time to

be able to hit the ball that's thrown, then process the ball and run. With depressants in their brain,

the batter could have swung the bat slow and strike out. All these factors contribute to the

consumption of substances that decrease the mental health and activity of the brain.

Alcohol and smoking are not the only substances that can slow down the mental ability of

athletes. There are hard-core addictive drugs that anyone could take like, acid, LSDs, cocaine, or

meth that really damage a person's brain to where they can think or function clearly. A less

illegal type of addictive drug that adolescents can get easier is nicotine. Nicotine has harmful

effects to the brain too. Divya Kumar wrote in the “Tampa Bay Times”, that “Vaping among

high school students has soared an eye-popping 900 percent”. This substance is the most used

with adolescents from vapes and is harmful to them. Teenagers still need the functions of their

brain to learn and make decisions while being a student athlete. From a reporter in the Mental

Health Weekly Digest in “Nicotine Gateway Effects on Adolescent Substance Use”, “adolescent

nicotine exposure influences long-term molecular, biochemical, and functional changes in the

brain that encourage subsequent drug abuse”. This means that chemicals in nicotine can change

the chemical chemistry of the brain. Young adults get nicotine from e-cigarettes which is a new

technology of a way of smoking nicotine. It is called vaping and teenagers are attracted to it

because companies make them look interesting and cool to try. These devices are very harmful
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because it can cause addiction or a behavioral change by putting nicotine and other chemicals

into a not fully developed brain. For athletes, it can change their views, motivations, and

perceptions. Since it is an addictive substance, athletes will keep using vapes and it will

mentally damage them. Putting any kind of harmful substance that is not needed in the body is

going to cause potential harm and damage to brain neuroreceptors, especially in adolescents.

However, there are some athletes and other people who think that some drugs are

beneficial. One view is that drugs and substances like Adderall are good because it improves

performance skills. While it is agreeable that it does improve skills, there are some risks.

According to “Adderall and Sports Performance” by Kevin Cann, Adderall contains

“Norepinephrine and dopamine that are both neurotransmitters that help improve memory, focus,

and energy”. These will help performance in sports, but our body normally makes these

neurotransmitters on its own so with an extra amount of it, the body will reduce production of

them. This will cause withdrawal effects from taking Adderall. Taking too much Adderall also

will cause an increase in heart rate. This can be very dangerous because it can lead to fatal risks.

Athletes that take these drugs already are increasing their heart rate from exercise, with the drug

it is doubling the increasing heart rate. Athletes that take drugs or substances with the same

outcomes as Adderall will become addicted, withdrawal effects, tolerance, and dependent on the

drug.

To conclude, adolescents that use drugs are negatively affecting their athletic careers,

athletic performance, physical health, and mental health. Some others will disagree, but too

much of a drug will cause a person, especially a teenager, to become addicted, dependent, and

have withdrawal problems. Drugs affect the mental and physical aspects of the body together.

Once the body’s weak, then the performance of the athlete decreases. The importance of this
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issue with adolescents doing drugs is that teenagers that become too dependent on drugs, can

cause problems for them in the future and for future generations. It is harming many athletes,

students, and people's physical and mental ability. To save us from future problems and the

problems of today, adolescents should deeply learn and understand the damages and effects of

drugs and substance abuse. There should be programs put into place that can help students get

over their drug usage. This issue should be acted upon now because there are so many more

students trying new drugs or nicotine devices and the ages keep getting lower. We do not want

children being drawn to drugs or being born into the world with addictions to drugs from their

parents.
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Works Cited:

"Drugs and Athletes." Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2019. Gale in

Context: Opposing Viewpoints, https://link-gale-

com.db23.linccweb.org/apps/doc/PC3010999324/OVIC?

u=lincclin_sjrcc&sid=OVIC&xid=d72d44eb. Accessed 9 Feb. 2020.

Kumar, Divya, and Kathleen Mcgrory. "VAPING BY TEENS SOARS, ALARMING TOP

DOCTOR; A new report from the surgeon general calls the trend a major health

concern." Tampa Bay Times [St. Petersburg, FL], 9 Dec. 2016, p. 1. Gale In Context:

Opposing Viewpoints, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A473394641/OVIC?

u=lincclin_sjrcc&sid=OVIC&xid=0abff2ef. Accessed 8 Mar. 2020.

Milic, Marija, et al. "Tobacco smoking and health-related quality of life among university

students: Mediating effect of depression." PLoS ONE, vol. 15, no. 1, 2020, p. e0227042.

Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A610814238/AONE?

u=lincclin_sjrcc&sid=AONE&xid=8087e14f. Accessed 4 Mar. 2020.

Mudrak, Jiri, et al. "Sport motivation and doping in adolescent athletes." PLoS ONE, vol. 13, no.

10, 2018, p. e0205222. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,

https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A557683546/OVIC?

u=lincclin_sjrcc&sid=OVIC&xid=2b8a5543. Accessed 4 Mar. 2020.

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National Institute on Drug Abuse. “What Are Marijuana's Effects on Lung Health?” NIDA,

www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/marijuana/what-are-marijuanas-

effects-lung-health. Accessed 8 Mar. 2020.

“Smoking and Physical Activity.” Cleveland Clinic,

my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/10643-smoking-and-physical-activity. Accessed 4

Mar. 2020.

"Studies from University of California Update Current Data on Adolescent Substance Abuse

(Nicotine Gateway Effects on Adolescent Substance Use)." Mental Health Weekly

Digest, 7 Oct. 2019, p. 780. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, https://link-gale-

com.db23.linccweb.org/apps/doc/A601817453/OVIC?

u=lincclin_sjrcc&sid=OVIC&xid=

55aa7949. Accessed 10 Feb. 2020.

“Why Is Alcohol Considered a Depressant?: Michaels House.” Michael's House Treatment

Centers, www.michaelshouse.com/alcohol-treatment/why-is-alcohol-called-a-

depressant/. Accessed 8 Mar. 2020.

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Wölkart, Gerald, et al. "Effects of flavoring compounds used in electronic cigarette refill liquids

on endothelial and vascular function." PLoS ONE, vol. 14, no. 9, 2019, p. e0222152.

Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,

https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A598890593/OVIC?

u=lincclin_sjrcc&sid=OVIC&xid=cfc9f3cd. Accessed 7 Mar. 2020.

Zaragoza, Javier, et al. "Effects of acute caffeine, theanine and tyrosine supplementation on

mental and physical performance in athletes." Journal of the International Society of

Sports Nutrition, vol. 16, no. 1, 2019, p. NA. Gale Academic OneFile,

https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A607402986/AONE?

u=lincclin_sjrcc&sid=AONE&xid=ce3f604f

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