Steroids should be legal in baseball

Before I begin my argument, I would like to ask everyone who will eventually vote in this debate to vote based upon te debate itself, not your own opinions. Thank you Now to my argument: When my opponent says steriods, I am going to assume that he is reffering to anabolic steriods, seeing as my opponent has not said what he means be steroids. There are many kinds of steroids, but I am going to assume he is talking about anabolic steroids. From the Merriam Webster Medical Dictionary comes a definition for anabolic steroids: anabolic+steroid One entry found for anabolic steroid. Main Entry: anabolic steroid Function: noun : any of a group of usually synthetic hormones that are derivatives of testosterone, are used medically especially to promote tissue growth, and are sometimes abused by athletes to increase the size and strength of their muscles and improve endurance As you can see, anabolic steroids are used medically to promote tissue growth. My rebuttals to my opponents argument: His first arguement: His facts are incomplete. I did a little research, and I found the percentages that my opponent stated. Regarding the ease by which one can obtain steroids, 17.0% of eighth graders, 27.7% of tenth graders, and 40.1% of twelfth graders surveyed in 2006 reported that steroids were "fairly easy" or "very easy" to obtain. Furthermore, 57.4% of twelfth graders surveyed reported that using steroids was a "great risk" during 2007.7 As you can see, 57.4% of 12th graders see steroids as a great risk. Would you do something that you see as a great risk? Jumping off a cliff into raging waters might be fun for some, but would you do it? No. You would not because you know that there is a great risk involved. Same concept with teens taking steroids. This argument has now been refuted. >>2) Steroids are also pretty harmful by causing a wide range of adverse side effects ranging from some that are physically unattractive, such as acne and breast development in men, to others that are life threatening. The important part is the life threatening which means that players are risking their lives just to get better at their sport. This is well known. Many people know that if you take too many steroids, which is a drug, it will harm you. Too much of any drug will harm you. Most people learn this be high school. I learned it in 3rd grade. The people who take steroids do so at their own risk. I am in no way justifying taking them, however. Taking steroids is a choice that all of these athletes made. >>Also since there currently is the 5 strike rule that means multiple players are taking steroids after being caught multiple times, boosting their playing level greatly. Also since there is a 5 strike rule people don't care if they get caught because they know they will only get a minor suspension or miss a game or two while the more strikes that pile up the more severe the consequence. If there was only a 2 strike rule player's wouldn't do it that often knowing they would get suspended for a season or two for taking it once and then officially not allowed to play baseball for taking it twice. This argument would be better off in your other debate, the one about the 2 strike rule. This debate is not about how many strikes players should have. This debate is about whether or not steroids should be legal in baseball. This point is irrelevant to our topic. (I am in no way limiting the topic. I am just debating from what I interpret from the topic. The number of strikes is not in the topic.) >>The two strike rule would reduce the amount of steroids taken greatly and make baseball a better sport. Again, look above. Now to my argument. I believe that if prescribed by a doctor to speed up the healing process, steroids should be allowed for baseball players. Anabolic steroids has medical uses, and we should not deprive baseball players from using it if they need it for a medical reason. I agree, abusing the use of anabolic steroids is bad, but using it to help in speeding up the recovery of an injured player is good. Would we stop a normal person from taking anabolic steroids even though they need it for a specific medical purpose? Of course not. Then why should we not allow baseball players to use anabolic steroids even though it is for a very specific medical reason, and is prescribed by a doctor? Thank you