"Performance Enhancing" Substances

     Recently, the National Football League has made the news for suspending several players for the use of performance enhancing substances. In most cases, professional athletes are being punished for using banned substances such as steroids which give them a direct advantage in their physical performance. However, several players have been suspended more recently for the use of Adderall, which is usually prescribed  to deal with ADD or ADHD. As someone who has been prescribed to this substance, I find this situation to be pretty interesting.

     The reason players are banned for using these substances seems pretty obvious, anything that enhances your performance gives you an unfair advantage over other athletes, and as a result the overall balance of the game comes into question. But can Adderall really give players that much of an advantage over their opponent? Now, it makes sense that such effects such as heightened concentration and alertness would definitely boost the performance of an athlete, but my own experiences make me question this. For example, look at the classroom as a comparison. One could make the argument that a student like me taking Adderall will allow me to concentrate better and therefore have an advantage over other students. This isn’t the case, instead it allows me to perform how I feel I should be under normal circumstances. Instead of giving me an advantage over others, it actually balances out the disadvantages I faced because I wasn’t motivated.

     Obviously, professional sports are more of a competition than a group of students learning in a classroom, but the example still works. In some cases, people may be fine and Adderall will make them even more attentive, and may give them an advantage. In other cases, the player might be dealing with some issues, and Adderall will assist with solving those problems and make them perform how they really should. Because you can’t really determine whether or not the substance is making them perform better or just perform how they really should, there isn’t really a way that they could allow it, and I am not saying they should. I Just don’t think its as easy to say it is a performance enhancing substance as it is for something such as steroids.