1) “one athlete with a chemical advantage ruins the idea of fair competition, which is the foundation of sports in general. ”
2)”any “baseline level of performance” – from which drug use is a supposed departure – is an imaginary concept. Our bodies are built differently, and have different baseline performances ”

Basically, what is the distinction you are drawing between chemical enhancement (bad) and physical enhancement(good)
Why would Michael Jordan’s dunk be any less impressive if it were due to chemicals plus a superior physique, plus training? the natural propensity, and the training, are still key – you can’t just buy some steroids, and magically transform into a great competitive athlete.
For that matter, who declares which items are permitted supplements, and which are unlawful ‘performance enhancers”? What is the objective criterion?

1) “one athlete with a chemical advantage ruins the idea of fair competition, which is the foundation of sports in general. ”
2)”any “baseline level of performance” – from which drug use is a supposed departure – is an imaginary concept. Our bodies are built differently, and have different baseline performances ”

Basically, what is the distinction you are drawing between chemical enhancement (bad) and physical enhancement(good)
Why would Michael Jordan’s dunk be any less impressive if it were due to chemicals plus a superior physique, plus training? the natural propensity, and the training, are still key – you can’t just buy some steroids, and magically transform into a great competitive athlete.
For that matter, who declares which items are permitted supplements, and which are unlawful ‘performance enhancers”? What is the objective criterion?

I think you underestimate how much science resembles a competitive sport. Research funding is the goal, and it requires a constant stream of publication, presentation and, even better, patent applications.

Ask any academic whose been up for tenure review, or any independent researcher.

While it certainly doesn’t have the coincident in time component that sports do (ie. people are competing asynchronously) I would venture to say that the impact is the same in the end.

If you want to say that sports doping is bad, science doping is bad too. If science doping is ok, then sports doping should be ok.

Stupid fascist government.

In fact, most of the drugs listed above have similar compounds found in nature – LSD is related to LSA – which is found in the seeds of Morning Glory flowers (just add a diethyl to LSA and you have LSD); Ritalin (amphetamine salts) is similar in nature to ephedra, found in the ma huang plant – which is why sales of ephedra were banned despite being the only truly functioning nasal decongestant found in nature. (well, technically those inhalable steroid sprays are ‘found in nature’ since steroids are within us all the time)

Caffeine, of course, has been with us for well over a thousand years, so have the coca leaves, prized for their non-refined characterists of enhancing concentration and suppressing appetite while you’re spending a day in the jungle hoping to hunt for food. Marijuana has been with humans for thousands and thousands of years, and according to some studies prevents cancers (though, of course, smoking huge amounts will still give you lung problems because smoke is smoke. just not lung cancer). Alcohol has been with us for thousands and thousands of years (in fact, an ancient egyptian bottle with traces of medicinal alcohol was recently found and is being analyzed for theraputic compounds) – and, if used responsibly (i.e. less than 2 bottles of beer a day), has been shown to help bone health and heart health in men over 40.

Red wine is known to contain resveratrol, though in tiny amounts, too small to be metabolized… through the stomach, but listen to this, “When one mg of resveratrol in 50 mL solution was retained in the mouth for one min before swallowing, 37 ng/ml of free resveratrol were measured in plasma two minutes later.” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resveratrol#Pharmacokinetics ) so, when they say hold the wine in your mouth, swish it around to really get the flavors, etc ? Turns out that may actually help you absorb the minute amounts of resveratrol it does contain… so wine tasting? Count to 60 before you spit, it may save your life…

We’ve all seen Futurama, right? The first time they go to a Blurnsball game (baseball with all the boring stuff removed), they talk about how players used to play before steroids were mandatory….