Alex Rodriguez is one of the greatest players in Major League Baseball. On August 5, 2013, the Major League Baseball suspended Rodriguez for 211 games for violating the league's Performance Enhancing Drug policy. He was one of the 13 players suspended for their roles during the biogenesis baseball scandal. The Drug Joint Prevention and Treatment Program is a program that was established by an agreement between the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball and the MLB Players Association. The goal of this agreement was to discourage and end the use of banned substances such as anabolic steroids and other drugs in baseball. During a 60 minutes interview, Anthony Bosch, owner of a health clinic in Coral Gables, Florida who specializes in hormone replacement therapy and anti-aging said publicly during the interview, that not only did he supply Alex Rodriguez with performance enhancing drugs (PED) but also injected him with them. .
There were secret texts with code words exchanged between Bosch and Rodriguez through cell phones that clearly show that they both had been working together and dealing with performance enhancing drugs. This news shocked millions of viewers and also increased the controversy about whether performance-enhancing drugs should be accepted in sports. There have been many other famous athletes who have been suspended due to PED use. The people who are against PED use argue that they are harmful and can potentially cause death. The athletes using PED are cheaters who want to gain an unfair advantage on other athletes. They violate the spirit of competition and send the wrong message towards children. The historic achievements of clean athletes are diminished due to PED users. The people against PED want the efforts to discourage the use of these drugs in sports to remain strong. While thinking about whether performance-enhancing drugs should be allowed in sports there are many important factors to consider such as health risk, fair play, technology, coercion, drug testing effectiveness, legalization of performance enhancing drugs, sportsmanship, role model athletes, sports fans and the hall of fame induction.
