Reasonably Regulating

ONCE, JUST ONCE, I'd like to see a famous athlete get caught using performance enhancing drugs, get punished, call a press conference, and tell the world: I used this substance deliberately because I have an inherent right to control my own bodily functions, notwithstanding society's well intentioned but horribly misguided attempt to eliminate a fundamental freedom for convenience, in defense of a highly questionable abstract moralistic belief." I'd be a great scandal. We'd all love it. For a brief flicker of a moment, there, I was thinking Maria Sharapova might be the one, but, no go. The system grinds us all into submission. These performance enhancing drugs, steroids, are in fact wonder drugs, which ought to be thoroughly researched, tested, and utilized, for improved human health and performance, transparently. Obviously, like anythign else you put into your body, you can put in too much, too little, or at the wrong time. But let's sit back and take a deep breath, and ask ourselves: are we really going down the right path in society by requiring people to submit to an examination of their internal bodies to determine what has been ingested? Or, should we all have as an unalienable right the right to do with our own bodies as we see fit, for good or ill? If you are allowed to run with artificial legs made of metal and plastic, win an olympic marathon, and keep the first prize, which you are, then maybe, just maybe, we should think twice about trying to maintain rules and regulations about what and what not people can ingest through their oral orifice. We know better than to outlaw harmful drugs such as alcohol, nicotene, sugar, and caffeine. Protein drinks and milkshakes with vitamin supplements are still allowed, are they not? How much longer will Gatorade be legal after a good workout?