Drug Abuse: Are Prescription Medicines Helping or Contributing to the Problem?

Abstract: Since the availability of pharmaceutical doping agents, athletes have been trying to extrapolate their known effects in disease states to the healthy corpus and increase their sporting prowess. Past confessions from athletes, such as Ben Johnson, Kelly White, Tim Montgomery, Marion Jones and currently Dwain Chambers have demonstrated that they are prepared to tread the very fine lines that separate the “men from the boys”. Rewards are so great, that anonymous surveys have identified that athletes will risk ill health, if they believe they can cheat, win and not get caught. Recreational sporting individuals, including the overweight, have taken up the mantle and ergogenic prescription only medicines have dramatically increased over the past decade. The question that needs to be answered, is the medical profession failing us and how can we stem the tide?