Have professional leagues created an environment where cheating is tolerated?
Our opinion is that the creation of a specific list of banned substances is tacit approval of other performance enhancing substances, and this environment of approval is harmful to players and their fans. The specificity of a banned list creates that atmosphere among athletes, trainers and chemists that substances are okay as long as they are either not on the list or because they cant be detected, is in it self wrong. Adopting clear policies, where taking any performance enhancing substance is considered wrong and penalties applied, creates accountability, amateur and professional leagues can simply do the right thing. If Major League Baseball can create and enforce a zero tolerance policy on gambling, which they have done successfully in the case of Pete Rose, they can create a policy on substance abuse and enforce it if they really want to. We cannot understand why they would want to put the health and welfare of their players at risk, the players are the ones who fill the seats, se
