Americans believe that steroids and other performance enhancing drugs are a problem for professional sports, but not one that the government should be involved with. In the latest Economist/YouGov Poll, more than three in four Americans view the use of performance enhancing drugs as a problem — and nearly half say it is a major problem.
Drug use is seen as an especially severe problem for Major League baseball and professional football, with more than four in ten saying at least half the players in each of those two sports use performance enhancing drugs. Fewer see half or more of professional cyclists, basketball players or track and field athletes using drugs.
But this is not something that the federal government should be investigating. Only 24% believe the government should investigate the use of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs in professional sports; 56% think this is something the government should stay out of.
Even Democrats are opposed to government involvement in investigating professional sports doping. 32% of Democrats want the government to investigate steroid use in sports, but 47% do not.
In fact, more Americans think Major League Baseball is doing a good job in preventing the use of steroids than believe it is doing a poor job, one reason they may think it is unnecessary for the federal government to step in.
Full datasets for Economist/YouGov polls can be found here.
Photo source: Press Association
