NOT A GOOD ROLE MODEL FOR KIDS? DON'T JUST BLAME A-ROD, LANCE AND OTHER SPORTS STARS.

     Major League Baseball - and other sports organizations - make a big deal about the use of Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) - and they should.  Athletes - such as New York Yankees superstar, Alex Rodriguez - and other baseball players - have been suspended from playing in their sport because of allegations - or even confessions - that PEDs were used.  In January 2014...an arbitrator ruled that A-Rod must sit out the entire 2014...162-game regular season - plus any post-season games this year - for allegedly violating MLB's anti-drug policy.  In October 2012, cycling legend, Lance Armstrong was stripped of his 7 Tour de France titles...and the United States Anti-Doping Agency issued Armstrong with a lifetime ban...from competing in any sport, which follows the World Anti-Doping Agency code.  Armstrong was also ordered by the International Olympic Committee to give back the bronze medal he won at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney Australia.

     The use of drugs - and I don't mean the illegal kind such as heroin, cocaine, crack, ecstasy and the like - are unfortunately an everyday occurrence by tens of millions of Americans nationwide.  Turn on your television at almost any given time of the day or night and you will find commercials that advertise for one sort of drug or another.  So I am, therefore, puzzled...why the average U.S. citizen...sports executives...journalists from all areas of the media...and anyone else for that matter...seem to be so shocked...by the use of PEDs by those who participate in professional sports.  After all...we live in a country that has gone "hog wild" with drugs.  Full disclosure - because of the various health issues that I suffer from - I too take my fair share of prescription medication everyday.

     Americans "pop pills" more than any other people on Earth.  And I sometimes wonder...why we take any kind of drug at all...based on the side effects that are possible.  I'm certain most - if not each and everyone of you - have heard the announcer of a television or radio commercial...as he or she rattles off a list...of everything from diarrhea to headaches...from seizures to death...and everything in between.  Advertising agencies create ways to sell the drug companies' products...so that - quite frankly - we sometimes think we need to take their capsule, tablet or pill...when we never even imagined that it was something we ever needed.

     There are approximately 322 million people living in the United States today, which is only about 5 percent of the world's population.  However, according to the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians... Americans take 80 percent of our planet's prescription pain pills.  The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate there are enough prescription painkillers prescribed in one year...to medicate every American adult...every hour...of every day...for one whole month.  And the CDC says that Americans consume 99 percent of the world's Hydrocodone - in drugs such as Vicodin, Lortab and Norco.  

     Reports by the CDC document that nearly one-fifth - almost 20 percent - of all high school-age boys in America are diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)...and about two-thirds of those teenagers are taking Ritalin or Adderall.  The CDC states that some 9 million U.S. adults are resorting to prescription sleeping pills - such as Ambien - to get a good night's rest.  But that over-the-counter shuteye medication can perhaps triple that number.

     From Codeine to Cymbalta...from Latuda to Lyrica...from Percocet to Pristiq...from Abilify to Xarelto - which is pronounced, Zarelto...and other drugs for depression, pain, blood pressure, cholesterol, anxiety and numerous other ailments - medications...many of which I can't even spell...let alone tell you what they are used for - are being taken by millions and millions of Americans everyday.

     Our country's national drug epidemic is a sad and disturbing reality.  If you're amazed...angered...or even appalled by the use of Peformance Enhancing Drugs by certain athletic champions...think about the fact that Americans - from coast to coast - use...and abuse prescription drugs...whether they need them or not.  Children may look up to sports, music, TV and motion picture celebrities...but their real role models...are their mothers and fathers...big brothers and big sisters...and others in their lives who they personally know. So when you hear reports about the use of PEDs by Alex Rodriguez, Lance Armstrong and other high-profile sports figures...don't blame them as the only ones responsible for setting a bad example for the kids of America today.  You may have to point the finger...at yourself.

     And that's The Controversy for today.

     I'm Gary B. Duglin.

     "We'll talk again."

The Controversy is a publication of GBD Productions.  Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Controversy is Gary B. Duglin.  

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