So if I want Vicodin because I like how it feels, I should be able to go to a doctor and have him prescribe it for me? How about morphine? Valium? Why should ballplayers get to pick and choose which illegal medications they are allowed to take?

Sabernar,

I would hope if you go to a doctor for Vicodin, he would not give it to you.

Why not? If ballplayers should be able to go to the doctor and demand an illegal/prescription drug, why should I be able to?

Sabernar, demanding a doctor for a prescription doesn't necessarily mean the doctor will meet your request.

No one's stopping YOU from asking for whatever you want, just don't expect to get it.

I'm sorry. This is a preposterous and naive argument. If you look hard enough, you can find a doctor somewhere to prescribe you *anything*. Steroid use would be absolutely rampant if this were how it was policed. You don't need to look any further than professional wrestling to see the effects of unchecked steroid use. And this is exactly what this would be - unchecked.

I guy I went to school with always wanted to play football but was far too small. I saw him about 5 years after graduation and he had grown about a foot and doubled his weight. His body was proportioned like a character in a Picasso painting. I asked him how he got that way and he told me he took steroids. Two years later I read about him in the obituaries. I don't want to see baseball players winding up like that.

I am in favor of drug legalization. However, MLB, and the baseball clubs, do have a right to ban certain substances as well. I am in favor of MLB (& NFL, etc.) banning steroids.