THEVOICE | 6 Drug guides outdated C anada’s sports supplement market is under-regulated, leaving athletes at risk of taking dangerous and banned drugs unknowingly. In order to better protect Cana- dian athletes, Health Canada needs to step up to the bat and improve supplement regulation. Supplements include products such as probiotics, muscle boosters and protein powders. Health Canada classifies these products as "natural health products". The Cana- dian Centre for Ethics in Sport warns that natural health products are regulated sepa- rately from food and drugs, receiving less rigorous oversight. In a recent Voice interview conducted by Austin Everett, exer- cise physiologist Dr. Charlie Selt- zer said that sports supplements are known for containing unlisted and harmful ingredients. If some supplements do contain unlisted drugs, athletes could be in danger of testing positive for banned substances they took unknowingly. Substances currently banned by the centre include performance- enhancing drugs like steroids, hormones and stimulants. Thanks to the current state of supplement regulation, Canadian anti-doping organizations like the centre warn athletes about the dangers of taking supplements of any kind. While testing positive for perfor- mance-enhancing drugs may seem bad enough for an athlete, relaxed regulations cause health concerns as well. When taken without proper guid- ance, performance-enhancing drugs can cause serious health problems. For example, the negative effects of steroid use can range from the super- ficial, like acne and baldness, to the deadly, like blood-clotting and liver cancer. The truth, however, is that not all supplements are dangerous or illicit. According to Dr. Seltzer, some supplements can be perfectly safe and even beneficial, so long as athletes are aware of any pre-existing health conditions and consult with a doctor prior to consumption. Rule-abiding athletes deserve the right to take Health Canada approved supplements without the concern of testing positive on their next doping test. While none of this is to say that some athletes do not break the rules knowingly, the state of today’s anti- doping system and Health Canada’s regulations could let some rule-abid- ing athletes slip through the cracks. OPINION LIAM HILL-ALLAN THURSDAY, FEB. 14,2019 | EDITOR AGAZY MENGESHA The East Van Cross, Golden Tree and Trans Am Totem are all examples of public art that tell Vancouver's stories. 74554 HODEL ILLUSTRATION Public art should involve the public he sheer fact that public art can be a gamble with taxpayer money that could result in a preten- tious pile of postmodernist crap irks many citizens without art degrees. However, not as many complaints exist in Vancouver's public art view- ership. The difference often amounts to the impact a local artist can make. ‘The only way to make meaningful public art is to hire artists who live or have lived in the area where the art will go. Vancouver is home to many memorable installations: for exam- ple, the East Van cross at the VCC- Clark SkyTrain station, the giant golden hollowed tree at Marine and Cambie, the stack of cars at False Creek, and Bill Reid’s carving at YVR, which was depicted on the Canadian 20-dollar bill. Artists born, raised, or who lived in B.C. all created these pieces, and they CHRISTINA contribute to DOMMER Vancouver’s atmosphere and attitude. ‘The artists’ personal experiences shine through all of these installa- tions. The East Van cross creator, Ken Lum, designed the monument to resemble those of the Catho- lic “greasers” from the rough-and- OPINION tumble East Van of the 60s. Douglas Coupland, prolific Canadian artist and author, modelled the golden tree after a similar one in Stanley Park that had stood for 800 years. Marcus Bowcott, who spent his career towing logs up False Creek, created the totem pole of cars to comment on throw-away culture. Some superstitious travellers depart- ing from Vancouver International Airport make a point to touch Bill Reid’s Jade Canoe for good luck. Local artists use their experience to add to Vancouver’s landscape and make their work more meaningful to those who visit them. Public art should never become an ironic city attraction ifa municipality wants to be taken seriously. Viewpoints or maly young people coming F into post-secondary, it's their first chance to demonstrate some small measure of independence. While Lang- ara may not have dorms like some other colleges and universi- ties, students are still on campus for long periods of time during the day, having to make many decisions for themselves for the first time, like how to manage their time, buy their own textbooks, and most importantly, feed themselves. You can't zip back home for every meal, and it takes up a lot of time in the morning making your own meals, so eventually you'll have to just buy your lunch in the cafeteria. But when the biggest vendors avaliable to you happen to be Tim Horton's (which only serves coffee and donuts, neither of which are particularly healthy) and Triple O’s, a fast-food restaurant, it's hard for people to make healthy decisions. It’s especially difficult to make healthy choices in a cafeteria that provides no nutritional information for their food. Junk food is generally cheaper to buy than healthier food, as there's less effort needed to produce it. For a student with a limited budget, they'll often be going with the cheaper option to save money. One solution to this would be for Langara to subsidize healthier foods, in an effort to encourage students to make better food decisions. But that would take time, there would be conflict over what exactly defines an unhealthy food and there would almost definitely be a pushback if it noticeably increased student tuition. ‘The other option, which I see as being far cheaper, more agreeable and with little to no affect on the average student's tuition, would be to present nutritional information for all food sold in the cafeteria. Some people may say it doesn't go far enough, it’s not actually changing anything about the unhealthy food being sold or making healthy food any more available. However, providing nutritional information to the student body is an essential step in clearing the way for students to start eating healthier. ‘The rest of the way is up to the students to walk. OPINION AGAZY MENGESHA The Voice is pub- government and lished by Langara College’s joumalism department. Editorial opinions are those of the staff and are independent of views of the student administration. We welcome letters to the editor. They may be edited for brevity. Your letter must in- clude your name and phone number. HOW TO DROP-IN REACH US Room A226 Langara College PHONE 604-323-5396 SNAIL MAIL The Voice E-MAIL 100 West 49th Ave. thevoice@langara. Vancouver, B.C. be.ca V5Y 226 WEBSITE INSTRUCTOR langaravoice.ca Erica Bulman PAGE EDITORS PAGE7 PAGE 1 Patrick Penner Kathryn Tindale PAGE 8 PAGE 2 Nathan Durec Roxanne Egan-Elliott © MANAGING PAGE 3 EDITOR Kelsea Franzke Roxanne Egan-Elliott PAGE 4&5 Nick Laba SOCIAL MEDIA PAGE 6 EDITOR Agazy Mengesha Darren Amner WEB EDITOR Joshua Rey Taesa Hodel Kim Lau Liam Hill-Allan Maxim Fossey MANAGING WEB Missy Johnson EDITOR Rena Medow Kirsten Clarke Tiemey Grattan Kristian Trevena REPORTERS Jennifer Blake Austin Everett Christina Dommer Chelsea Liu WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU CONTACT Have a different point of view? Write us US Online at langaravoice.ca Journalism instructor Erica Bulman oversees The Voice. Email: ebulman Twitter @langara.ca @LangaraVoice