Speech by Ally Ladha on Drug Abuse (5th April 2007)

Did you see the 2000 Summer Olympics? If you did then you know that Andreea Raucan got the gold metal in gymnastics for Romania. Then the International Olympic Committee found pseudo ephedrine in her system. When the people found out, they took away her gold medal. Andreea said that she had a cold and that she got medicine with pseudo ephedrine. A lot of people didn’t think it was fair. They thought it is rude to take away the medal because she had a cold. It might be a drug that makes you better at sports, but it did not even help her. The International Olympic Committee said they have to follow the rules, therefore striping the Romanian from her title. The above example was of a Romanian lady who got her medal taken away but during the 1980’s, Ben Johnson was a famous Canadian runner that set two world records for the 100-meter dash. 9.38 seconds was his first record in 1987. In 1988 he set a record of 9.79 seconds. In Seoul, Korea Ben Johnson raced American runner Carl Lewis for the 1988 Olympics. They have raced against each other 15 times from 1980-1988. Carl Lewis won 9 times and Ben Johnson won 6 times. In the 1988 Olympics, Ben Johnson won the gold medal. Two days after Ben Johnson got his metal, he got it taken away. He got it taken away because he had taken steroids. Then both of his world records were erased from the world records books. In this example we saw Ben’s records being the best records in running to nothing in running because of his addiction to steroids. What are Steroids and what can they do to your body? A steroid is an illegal drug that will make you stronger. If you are a swimmer or another athlete they will make you stronger. A weight lifter will become better and stronger. You can also practice longer and lift heaver weights. Athletes get there medal taken away if they use steroids. That is because it is unfair to the other athletes. Taking steroids in the Olympics is like cheating. Carl Lewis could have beaten Ben Johnson if he took steroids, too. But the dangers of using steroids outweigh the benefits. In most sports competitions, athletes are warned not to take steroids. If you are caught taking steroids your medal will be taken away, but it not necessary that your medal will be taken away you can also be thrown out of the league or be banned from playing a sport for some months. Rio Ferdinand is a professional soccer player, before the 2002 world cup his England teammates had to take a drug test and if they were tested positive they would be omitted form the squad, and as Ferdinand was taking steroids to make the team he missed the drug test and that made the F.A suspicious, he was told to report to the hospital for a test, without his team mates, and he was tested positive for steroids, therefore he was thrown out of the England squad and was also banned for playing soccer for 8 months. Another excellent soccer player was axed by his team, Mateja Kezman of Chelsea was tested positive for Steroids too and was discharged from Chelsea and immediately sent back to Romania. By looking at their idols and by watching sports many teenage boys want to be as strong as Batsista or they want to be as huge as Yao Ming, and what better way to grow muscles fast then the use of steroids. They use a kind of steroids called anabolic steroids. These kinds of steroids make them grow faster. Anabolic steroids make your body more muscular. Steroids are a chemical shortcut to help you grow. The problem with them is that they can make you violent and very depressed. One in every fifteen teenagers uses steroids. That adds up to 500,000 teenagers! Addiction to steroids starts from young age, reportedly in America steroid users started using this drug when they were in grade 9 and because of the early start they are addicted to it and over 1.1% of 9th graders are reported to be using drugs throughout their lifetime. Michael was 15 years old and he felt very small and weak compared to other boys. He got picked on and teased by other kids. He soon began to work out a lot. He built up his muscles so when he was 16 years old he weighed 165 pounds and was 5 feet 9 inches tall. Still, Michael wanted to be bigger. That was when he found out about anabolic steroids and illegally bought some at a local gym. Soon, he weighed more, 195 pounds. Because Michael took steroids, he had violent mood swings. He would get angry over little things. Friends and family noticed he was depressed a lot. When he was 17 years old, he shot himself with a rifle. At just age 17 Michael lost his life because of a killer drug, His sister said, "Steroids pulled the trigger." When Aaron was 17, he had been taking steroids for 5 years. He was the star of the football team, but still had terrible health problems. He had violent mood swings and was really depressed a lot. Still, he could not stop taking the steroids. One night, he swallowed a whole bottle of medicine trying to kill himself. Soon he was rushed to the hospital. Luckily, he did not die. Some medical tests showed steroids caused damage to Aaron’s liver, kidneys, and stomach. "If you do not quit steroids, you will die," a doctor warned him. Aaron listened to the doctor this time and quit taking steroids. At the age of 20, Aaron works to warn other people about the risks of taking steroids. Here are some words from Aaron’s speech at his high school: "I took steroids because I did not believe in myself. I learned the hard way that what matters is how you feel about yourself, not what others think about you. What others think fades away. But what you feel inside last as long as you live." Do you know that steroids can also be good for you? Doctors give them to you for rashes and allergies. Did you know that asthma is the most common kid disease in the whole world? Five million kids in the U.S. get it. Certain steroids are a safe way to treat asthma in kids, but they do have side effects. There are some good things about steroids and so many bad things. A good thing is it can treat asthma safely. A bad thing is that your kidneys, liver, and stomach can be destroyed. Too many steroids can destroy your mind. If people take illegal steroids, they will have mood swings. You can be very violent or depressed so much that you might kill yourself. Steroids are taken to strengthen muscles, but they can damage them, too. Steroids can cause heart disease and cancer. They can also make a young child stop growing.