KRAC Blog

Reading the article in last week's NYTimes Magazine about sports doping I was once again struck by the cognitive dissonance this topic creates for me. Ben Johnson was a big cheater, and a despicable person, but it is hard to say how what he did is all that different from a big old cup of Starbucks before a 5k. "Against the rules" is the answer that springs to mind, and I suppose that's true, but it seems to me that you would have to say that the offense of doping is malum prohibitum, not malum in se. Maybe I'm rationalizing (okay, I am rationalizing), but one of the things that I did last season to stay healthy was to lightly dose myself with the anti-inflammatory meds I had left over from the summer before that. It worked, but I have no idea if my urine would have passed muster with USATF. Come to think of it, it probably wouldn't today, either.

I'm not sure where this fits in with my Pete Rose problem.