Drug use in sports dates back to the ancient Greeks during the very first Olympics. There is evidence that Greek athletes would gorge themselves on meat, which was not a normal dietary staple of the Greeks, and experiment with herbal medications in an effort to enhance their performances. The ancient Greek athletes also drank wine potions, used hallucinogens and ate animal hearts or testicles in search of energy. Gladiators would ingest hallucinogens and stimulants such as strychnine to stave off fatigue and injury and to improve the intensity of their fights. As well as the Olympians using substances themselves, chariot racers also feed their horses substances such as hydromel (an alcoholic beverage made from honey) to make them run faster. Although drug use in athletics dates back as far as athletics itself , should we turn a blind eye to drug use today? Performance enhancing drugs in sports has become a controversial issue in today's professional sports world. Today's athletes continue to push the boundaries of excellence in performance and physical fitness. Helping these athletes are more refined training methods and technologies. Never have athletes had more training aids at their disposal. Although training methods and techonlogies have improved vastly in sports today there is a downside to all of these new innovations. Never before have athletes had more opportunities to cheat mainly through the use of performance enhancing drugs. There are many drugs athletes use to enhance their athletic ability. These drugs include Steroids, Amphetamines, Stimulants, Peptide Hormones, Human growth Hormone, and Insulin, just to name a few. Athletes also seek this effect through the use of over the counter substances such as cretin, androstenedione, and erythropoietin especially at the high school level. These drugs do have some medical uses, but are carefully controlled when used for medical reasons. For that reason they are illegal unless used in accordance with a prescription. The problem with these illegal drugs varies, from addiction to infertility and baldness. When big name athletes such as Jose Canseco, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, and newely added to the list, Lance Armstrong take steroids they tarnish their reputation, records, and status as an idol in my eyes. When young athletes watch as their childhood heroes get caught one by one in drug scandals its hard for them to refrain from trying to follow in their footsteps, in turn, also taking performance enhancing drugs. According to a study from Minnesota 5% of all high school and middle school students have used steroids to put on muscle mass. This is a huge problem in America. Many critics say that the pressure we put on athletes these days drives them to use sports enhancing drugs. It is true that pressure is greater on athletes today than ever in the past. The fierce competitive nature of the modern sports' world, in combination with society's demand for excellence, has caused athletes to seek alternative means to enhance their performance. Today's athlete faces an increasingly difficult choice: to use drugs to enhance performance or to accept what could amount to a competitive handicap. It is a choice, which carries significant ethical contemplations. Should athletes be permitted to make this choice, or should society, through the sports' governing bodies strictly enforce the ban on performance enhancing drugs? The bottom line is that every year there becomes an increasingly alarming number of athletes caught taking sports enhancing drugs. These so called role models are the ones that the youth in America look up to. When athletes sign their contracts’ it should be known that along with there new job comes a new responsibility; that is to live knowing millions of young people around the country, and sometimes around the world will do whatever it takes to follow in their footsteps, and in many cases that means taking drugs. As the world of sports moves forward, so will the world of drugs, but all we can hope is that one-day athletes will open their eyes and see that their actions effect many more people than themselves.