Fantasies about super-warriors are as old as the civilizations that first went to war against each other. Modern versions of these military “action figures” have often been imagined as soldiers who have been transformed by performance-enhancing drugs. Fascination with their elite status translates easily into fantasies about their special access to powerful drugs. Imagining the […]
Steroids in the U.S. Military: The View from the Ranks (Part 2)
The online chat-rooms that attract self-identified military personnel, as well as others who leave posts on these sites, are the only real source of information about how enlisted soldiers think about anabolic steroids. Much of my confidence in the more substantial postings is based on what I know about American police officers’ use of steroids […]
Steroids in the U.S. Military – The View From the Ranks (Part 1)
“What is the perception of AAS [anabolic-androgenic steroids] among the vast number of servicemen?” an anonymous website commentator asked on October 24, 2007. “Same brainwashing? I would assume that having a strong soldier would be a top priority …” To which a like-minded poster added: “it’s really a general expectation that the ideal Soldier is […]
Entertainment on Steroids (Part 2)
When it comes to “entertainers” and drug use, there are two distinct genres of popular entertainment. One of them is charged with enforcing ethical norms, while the other is not. The managers of major American sports leagues and federations are expected to enforce codes of behavior that prominently include zero tolerance for criminal behaviors that […]
Entertainment on Steroids (Part 1)
It has long been an open secret that many performers in the entertainment industry take, or are widely presumed to take, anabolic steroids and human growth hormone (hGH), along with their “recreational” drugs like cocaine and marijuana. No one should be surprised that performers whose careers require taut skin and well-defined muscles would use PIED’s […]
Surviving the Tour: Can Cycling Be Saved?
Is it possible to detoxify a major sport in the Age of Doping? Any realistic response to that question must acknowledge that “cleaning up” a sport has two dimensions: (1) preventing performance-enhancing drug (PED) use by athletes, and (2) convincing the sporting public that everything possible is being done to achieve this result and that […]
The Repentant Doper: Do Drug-Taking Athletes Feel Guilt? (Part 2)
While athletes who dope are usually expected to feel guilt pangs, the exception to this rule is when an observer concludes that dopers in general, or a particular doper, may not have consciences at all. In 2010 Dick Pound, who served as president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) from 2000 until 2007, called doping […]
The Repentant Doper: Do Doped Athletes Feel Guilty? (Part 1)
Experimentation with chemical substances for the purpose of boosting athletic performance dates from the last decades of the nineteenth century. Ethical disapproval in sports circles of what came to be called “doping” dates from the 1920s. Societal disapproval of athletic doping on a larger scale has developed slowly over the past half-century, along with the […]
The End of a Myth: Doping Comes to Kenya
The overwhelming success of Kenyan distance runners over the past twenty-five years has stimulated a great deal of speculation about the origins of their remarkable performances. Living at high altitude, adolescent circumcision rituals, a legacy of cattle raiding, training up and down hills, body structure (including “bird-like legs”) – these and other potential explanatory factors […]
“He’s Pumping. Are You?”
Weightlifting Convicts as a Threat to Society One of the less visible contests between policemen and criminals occurs in an indirect fashion in station houses and prisons. This contest takes the form of weightlifting, of “working out,” and although the law-enforcers have the better equipment, the sheer ingenuity of the weight-lifting law-breakers makes it a […]