Love is the drug: performance-enhancing in sport and music

Abstract

Drugs: the question of who should and who shouldn't be permitted to take them, and why, is among the more perplexing issues of modern times. Their value in enhancing performance is hardly a secret. Would Byron and Shelley have been the creative force they were without the aid of laudunum? Would David Bowie have made Station to Station if he hadn't been caught in a cocaine blizzard? Would John Lennon have written ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ on caffeine? Should sleep-deprived surgeons be encouraged to take modafinil, a brain stimulant known to boost memory and brain power? But if you're Ben Johnson or Lance Armstrong, down that road lies only disqualification, betrayal and global opprobrium. But is the sports star who looks for an edge, who looks to go further, really any different? And if not, why do we treat them differently? Since musicians, writers and dancers also compete with each other for our pockets and affections, albeit in a less directly confrontational manner, is it fair to stigmatize sportspeople for using chemistry to enhance our enjoyment? This chapter examines whether such double standards can be justified any longer.

Notes

^1. Steen, ‘100 Greatest Albums Ever Made’, 54.

^2. Leake, ‘Doctors Given Drug Perform Better Surgery’.

^3. The Third Man , directed by Carol Reed.

^4. Barnes, ‘Forget the Good Guy Brand’.

^5. Ibid.

^6. Barnes, ‘Rest Easy, All You Mr & Mrs Smiths Out There’

^7. Barnes, ‘Athletes, the Naughty Vicars’.

^8. Ritz, Divided Soul, 114.

^9. Miles, Paul McCartney, 184–5.

^10. Ibid., 190.

^11. Flanagan, Written in My Soul, 291–2.

^12. Ibid., 123.

^13. Ibid., 195–6.

^14. Ibid., 210–1.

^15. Myers, Wizard, A True Star, 74.

^16. ‘Weight Loss (and Gain) Lessons from Sumo Wrestlers’, Philippine Daily Inquirer Archive, http://www.tinajuanfitness.info/articles/011403.htm

^17. Saletan, ‘Beam in Your Eye’.

^18. Ibid.

^19. Dodd, ‘Tommy John Surgery’.

^20. R. Steen, ‘Introduction to Debate at the University of Brighton’, 2006. Panellists included Michelle Verroken, former head of drug testing for UK Sport, sportswriter Stephen Downes, sportswriter, broadcaster and secretary of the Sports Journalists’ Association, and Lincoln Allison, Emeritus Reader in Politics and Doctor of Letters at the University of Warwick.

^21. Lipsyte, ‘Fiction as a Microscope for Preps’.

^22. Engel, ‘Deadly Cost of Not Dealing with Drugs’.

^23. Ibid.

^24. Savulescu, Foddy, and Clayton, ‘Why We Should Allow Performance Enhancing Drugs’.

^25. Vangrunderbeek and Jan Tolleneer, ‘Student Attitudes Towards Doping’, 347.

^26. Ibid.

^27. Ibid.

^28. Ibid., 350.

^29. Ibid.

^30. Ibid., 355.

^31. Longman and Connelly, ‘Americans Suspect Steroid Use in Sports’ (quoted in Vangrunderbeek and Tolleneer, ‘Student Attitudes Towards Doping’, 355).

^32. Briggs, ‘Swifter, Higher, Stronger, Dirtier?’ (quoted in Vangrunderbeek and Tolleneer, ‘Student Attitudes Towards Doping’, 355).

^33. Broadbent, ‘Testers Catching Up in Race to Stop Pursuit of Fools’ Gold’.

^34. Ibid.

^35. Ibid.

^36. Moses, ‘Chambers Came Clean’.

^37. O'Connor, ‘Banned Britons Assess Options as Dopers’.

^38. Ibid.

^39. Broadbent, ‘No Room for Redemption’.

^40. ‘Nadal Attacks Drug Testing Rules’, BBC Sport, February 12, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/7885314.stm

^41. Syed, Bounce: How Champions Are Made, 224.

^42. Nothnagle, ‘East German Doping Scandal’.

^43. Cleaver, ‘Marxism, Medals…and Misery’.

^44. Harding, ‘Forgotten Victims of East German Doping’.

^45. Baker, ‘Staying Ahead of the Field’.

^46. John Brewer, phone interview, February 25, 2011. Contact details: Tel [phone], Email: [email protected].

^47. World Anti-Doping Agency, ‘L1: Introduction to the Spirit of Sports Values’.

^48. Saletan, ‘Turin Sample’.

^49. Bignell and Stevenson, ‘Keith Richards Proves’.