i just can't believe you'd be okay with it. It would basically required every young kid with some real athletic talent to ruin his body just to be a pro.
Not "kids," unless you refer to young adults as kids, which I don't. The negative effects of steroids aren't hidden at all, they've been widely publicized. If an adult wants to take those risks to go further, faster and higher, that's their call. This doesn't even have the "But what if he/she kills someone else?" concern of legalizing other behaviour modifying drugs.
People ruin their health in other jobs, like corporate climbers who go without sleep, exercise and ignore their health in order to work the hours necessary to get the promotions and raises they're after. Conceptually, I don't see any real difference. Some people value professional success over their health, some don't.
We'd have kids start doing this at 16 just so they can get looked at because of all the big guys playing well past their natural primes because they are juicing.
I've already said that I'm fine with laws making such drugs illegal for children (people under the age of 18, or wherever society wants to set age for being legally considered an adult).
It would ruin all of pro sports
I disagree. No more so than legal supplements have, or "accepted" use of illegal drugs (like the candy dishes full of amphetamines in MLB club houses) have. Nutrition and training have constantly evolved over the years, and there are plenty of dangerous supplements that are legal. Until recently, for example, ephedra was a legal supplement for pro athletes and it was much more dangerous and deadly than steroids. It's now generally banned, after some high profile deaths, but it wasn't the only legal, dangerous supplement. So, do you feel pro sports are currently ruined?
and not to be too dramatic, but to a point, our society.
I think that's extremely melodramatic.
