If every sport organizations are implementing strict policy on the use of performance enhancing drugs and steroids, Dallas Mavericks owner has a different stand on the issue. His statement draws various reactions from sports writer as well as other critics who are against steroid use in sports. Many people reacted because it may send a wrong signal to athletes that using performance enhancers are okay to excel in sports.

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban told a group of students during a forum at the University of Pittsburgh that his “common sense” tells him that athletes could benefit from using steroids if they were made legal. This is in response to the question about the suspension of Orlando Magic forward Rashard Lewis who was sanctioned with a 10-game suspension in August for violating the drug policy of NBA.

In the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review report, Cuban said steroids can be used by athletes to recover from injuries provided that there is a supervision of a doctor to see to it that there will be no long-term harmful side effects. “If you administer them properly and fairly and set the rules strictly as long as in doing so we recognize there are no negative long-term health impact issues.” Cuban knows that his remarks could create bad impression against him. “I will get killed for saying this but I’m not so against steroids. We do performance-enhancing things all the time, just not steroids,” he said.

Although he is in favor of making steroid legal, the Mavericks owner is not expecting that sports league will abandon their steroid testing programs. “You have to get to the point where that risk isn’t there and we are not there yet,” he said.

Gwen Knapp of San Francisco Chronicle agrees that certain steroids can be used safely in short term dosages to help an athlete recover from injuries but doubts if it can be monitored properly if it will be legally allowed to be used by professional athletes. “How can we hope to monitor the amounts athletes use? Institute testing that assesses levels of usage? That’s not feasible. It’s been hard enough for scientists to devise tests that reliably detect the presence of a performance-enhancing drug,” Knapp added. Problems could also arise in the amateur level.

On the other hand, Rub Lunn, a former professional football player and a sports writer said that Mark Cuban has a point. “Cheating is well wrong, but if you buy it packaged and sold, well, those moral lines blur a bit. If the NCAA or NFL chose to monitor, regulate and “package” steroid use in a responsible way, then I’d be all for it,” he said. Although he is also concerned if it can be properly monitored by their respective sport organizations.

Under the current NBA policy on steroids, a first positive steroid test results in 10 game suspension while a second offense will result in a 25-game suspension. A player who violated the policy on the third time will be suspended for a year. The NBA conducts random tests four times each season.

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