NCJ Number
128195
Journal
Journal of Drug Issues Volume: 21 Issue: 1 Dated: (Winter 1991) Pages: 147-164
Date Published
1991
Length
18 pages
Annotation
The use of steroids by Ben Johnson, a Canadian sprinter who won the 1988 Olympic gold medal in the 100-meter event only to have it taken away as a result of a urine test, was marked by a public discourse distorted by the ideological constructs of the Olympic games themselves.
Abstract
The resulting national inquiry into athletes' use of performance-enhancing drugs brought out four lines of defensive argument, focusing blame on foreign enemy athletes, the economics of amateur sport, unscrupulous coaches, and unethical doctors. The inquiry shifted the discourse onto the more familiar territory of demonizing illicit drug use. The author maintains that his unproductive framework for policy analysis obscured potentially useful parallels between drugs on the street, drugs in medicine, and drugs in sports. 12 notes and 47 references (Author abstract modified)