The Shrub gave his third “State of the Union” address this week. I had no idea what one was until I heard his first post-9/11 speech while I was in Florida at a Lotus Geek conference. That was his first declaration of standing up against the so called “Axis of Evil” (one of the most cunning marketing phrases of the 21st century so far!) This year, amongst the usual ramblings about the War against Terror, the Invasion Liberation of Iraq, the ongoing struggle to be the only country in the world with WMDs and the Gay Marriage, Dubya spoke about the the all important, epoch defining issue of “Drugs In Sport”.

I had to do a double take when I reviewed the BBC’s key points of his speech. Drugs in sport? Why was that an issue worthy of a State of the Union speech, up there with Health Care, Economy, Tax Cuts and Immigration? And then I read the summary of his points:

The use of performance-enhancing drugs like steroids in baseball, football, and other sports is dangerous, and it sends the wrong message. I call on team owners, union representatives, coaches, and players to get rid of steroids now.

Erm, okay. That’s hit the nail on the head. Using drugs in sport is bad because they’re dangerous. Good point. Cuts straight to the heart of the argument.

Except for one thing - it’s total and utter bollocks!

The use of performance enhancing drugs in sport is cheating. That’s why it’s wrong. It’s as simple as that. It’s absolutely nothing to do with whether they’re dangerous or not. After all, high levels of caffiene is banned in sport, pseudo-ephedrine (the main consitituent of the common decongestant Sudafed) is banned in sport, artificial stimulants (as found in cold cures like Day Nurse etc.) are banned in sport. The doses as usually prescribed by doctors not dangerous to you but even a small dose is illegal in sport.

Because it’s cheating!

If you banned use of steroids because of the danger to the athletes taking them then shouldn’t you also consider banning dangerous sports? Look at the list of injuries to the England rugby team at the moment! Some of those players are going to be damaged for life. Should we ban rugby as it’s obviously dangerous? What about boxing? Look at the damage that it’s done to some boxers (Michael Watson is a good example). Surely boxing is a sport that can be classed as dangerous? So why not ban it?

In fact, if you’re going to go the whole hog, ban training! Extreme training at high levels can cause injury and I for one can testify to that. And not just sprained joints, pulled muscles and the rest, but injuries that plague you for the rest of your life. So why not ban people from training hard because although they might get healthier and fitter and excel in sport, it’s also potentially dangerous!

Talk about jumping on a bandwagon (which you shouldn’t do because if you miss you could hurt yourself and is therefore dangerous). What can I say? Bush has opened his mouth once more and again, absolute drivel pours out. This man, a convicted drink driver, has the audacity to raise the topic of drugs in sport, something which I doubt he knows anything about, and uses the same old ignorant arguments that seep through the tabloids and newspapers without anyone stopping to find out the facts.

I can’t say I’m surprised at all, although I’m still dumbfounded to know what he was doing talking about it in the first place, aside from trying to be popularist and interesting.

Knob!