Drugs in sport

Seems like we are losing the Arms Race. Is there a case for just saying take what you like? Many people use drugs (caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, prescription, herbal) to "help"  them in normal life. No substance is going to turn you into a top athlete. If people want to kill themselves putting crap into their body its up to them. Whoever gets over the line first wins in whatever state they do it.

No - With one exception.

The drug rules were brought in not for fairness but to protect athletes after their careers. Many of the East German athletes have since had debilitating illnesses and some have died. The communist bloc countries had programmes that selected athletic children and then gave them powerful drugs - this is in effect child abuse and must be deterred at all costs.

While no one doubts that doping occurs the fact that it has to remain clandestine means that top medical research professionals tend to stay away. If it was legal, with the money in sport it would immediately become a boom industry with the best and brightest medical researchers attracted by the money. I'd prefer they continued working on treatments for diseases such as Cancer and Alzheimers.

The exception is blood transfusion. This works by athletes training at altitude (increasing red blood cells) bagging their blood and then during transfusing this during competition. It's not dangerous and it's very hard to detect so legalising this would level the playing field.