Anti Doping

Dear, Adam Silver

Hi, My name is Raghav Bhatla I am a concerned student from Harry Ainlay Composite High School. My position on the proposal of allowing performance-enhancing drugs to be allowed in the NBA is to reject it. I say this because the risks of this outweigh the enhancements. This would be a really bad idea because it would erase all the hard work, and talent that is in the NBA.

First, the risks that come from taking these unapproved drugs are severe. The most common performance-enhancing drugs are called ostarine and LGD4033. These drugs are highly toxic to the human body. These drugs cause many side effects on the body which include ostarine. A common SARM (Selective Androgen Receptor Modular) is known to cause very harsh liver damage and the possibility of a heart attack which will lead to death. Another common SARM is LGD4033 (Ligandrol) If consumed by mouth, it is known to cause similar side effects to ostarine. It causes heavy liver damage, stroke, and heart attack, and these things will lead to death. Testosterone is the most common hormone used in professional sports. Testosterone is known to increase muscle growth, bone growth, and many more, but these things don't even come close to what excess testosterone does to the human body. When testosterone is taken for a long time, it causes a higher chance of cardiovascular problems, like heart attacks, strokes, and deaths from heart disease.

Second, if this proposal were to be approved. There would be no talent in the NBA. If people were allowed to take performance-enhancing drugs, nobody would be able to tell the difference between if a person is just talented or if they are taking drugs. People that worked hard all their lives to get to the NBA would lose all their hard work. This would happen because somebody that practices every day, and people with a raw talent for the sport would be useless. After all, people would be allowed to take drugs that push the human body past its limits. Someone who has the talent for the sport, might not be able to perform as well because of the enhancement that is being done in the league. You might make the argument that you are giving everybody a choice to use enhancement drugs. But that might not be possible for everybody. This could happen due to religious reasons, or the fact that these drugs cause harm or death. Another argument that you might make is that people already use performance-enhancing drugs. This is not a false statement, people do use performance-enhancing drugs already, but the percentage of people is super low. I believe that the NBA should not allow the drugs but get stricter in testing, and make the penalties for people that are caught to expulsion from the league. This would decrease the rates of people using performance-enhancing drugs.

Lastly, these drugs are high risk, and most of the drugs are not FDA approved. Most of the drugs cause severe long-term damage. The FDA has prohibited the use of ostarine, LGD4033, and many other SARMs. WADA (World Anti Doping Agency) has banned the use of testosterone, and many other drugs including Glucocorticoids, Cannabinoids, Narcotics, Stimulants, Gene and Cell Doping, Chemical and Physical Manipulation, Manipulation of Blood and Blood Components, Diuretics and Masking Agents, Hormone and Metabolic Modulators and many more.

Thank you once again for taking time out of your very busy day to read this letter about the new proposal. Please email me back at [email protected]

Sincerely, Raghav Bhatla