The following dialogue has been excerpted from a discussion between Dr. M.L. Mason, editor of The Teensmag for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Education and Prevention, and student athletes attending a suburban Toronto secondary school.

Dr. Mason: When I was a young student athlete a long time ago, I had no knowledge of, or access to, performance-enhancing chemicals. So I never had to face the ethical decisions you people have to make.
Tim (interrupting): Yeah, it's not as cut and dried as some think. There can be big bucks at the end of the rainbow.
Jake: But what about your health? Doc, I hear horror stories about long-term effects.
Dr. Mason: It's a phenomenon that only started a couple of decades ago and needs to have quantified longitudinal or long-term health measurements done. So far, we only have anecdotal feedback, but it doesn't look good. Heart, liver and reproductive organ breakdown. And don't forget depression. That young male Texas athlete who committed suicide recently...
Amy (shuddering): That's scary! Why would anyone want to use roids knowing the risks?
Tim: That's easy. Look at Rick there. If he wants to make the Argos, he'll need to bulk up 30 pounds. It's quick and easy with the roids. Some guys feel a little risk can lead to millions.
Rick (laughing): Sure, sure. No way, man. I don't want a heart attack before I'm 50.
Tim: Doc, what about blood doping? Is that as dangerous?
Dr. Mason: Possibly, but we need more studies. There are many ways of doing it. But tell me, isn't that still unethical?
Amy: Sure it is. It's playing with a rigged deck.
Jake: It makes you cynical. Every day or so in the sports pages, you read about these pharmo-freaks like Barry Bonds or Marion Jones.
Rick: There's something else we haven't discussed. The humiliation you suffer when you get exposed. Like Jason Giambi, baseball's most valuable player a couple of years ago and now just a broken down bum...
Dr. Mason: Maybe that's a bit harsh. Still, did the steroids cause his diminished capabilities when he stopped using them? Certainly, his production stats went way, way down.
Rick: Who knows? But it's enough to warn any athlete with any smarts at all.
Dr. Mason: It seems to boil down to that siren song named money. Take what you can get away with as long as the bucks come in.
Jake: Is it too late to stop it? They say seven percent of 750 major league baseball players have been detected using enhancers, but how many more are doing it undetected as yet?
Rick: No matter if 90 percent do it, it doesn't make it right.
Amy: Let's hope it's only a phase.
Tim (interrupting): Oh, then something else will come along.
Amy (angrily): We'll just have to be on our watch.
Dr. Mason: It seems we all agree that nothing good ethically or physically can result from anyone's getting involved with performance-enhancing drugs. And it's sad when athlete role models like the two Greek olympic sprinters insist on covering up their misdeeds by denials or a famous ballplayer says in San Francisco that he thought he was taking herbals. Thanks for setting a good example. Have a fun, drug-free athletic career.
Reprinted with permission from Teensmag, a publication written by teens about alcohol and drug abuse education and prevention. Teensmag editor and publisher Dr. Merv Mason is a psychologist with many years experience in alcohol and drug abuse education and prevention. This publication is a useful resource tool in helping to educate teens against the dangers of substance abuse. Over the past 17 years, it has made a significant contribution to enhancing awareness about prevention. Through corporate sponsorship, Teensmag is distributed throughout secondary schools in BC, police detachments, the aboriginal community and substance abuse centres.