On July 14, Jamaicans became familiar with the stimulant Oxilofrine when favoured son, Asafa Powell, and Sherone Simpson released statements outlining that they had returned adverse findings from drug tests done at the national championships in June. As a result, they will miss the 14th IAAF World Athletic Championships that begin in Moscow this weekend.

They also face the prospect of being banned from the sport for months, perhaps a year or more.

Jamaicans were shocked, many still are, but many people out there in the world looking on used the episode to brand Jamaican athletes drug cheats. Rising to the defence of their athletes, many Jamaicans - fans of the athletes - were at pains to explain that stimulants are different from anabolic steroids, which are the real 'bad boys' of doping. And you know what? They are right.

I am going to play devil's advocate here and explain to you why stimulants should not be banned because if they are banned, many other things, and one thing in particular, should be banned, too.

A stimulant is described as psychoactive drugs which "induces, temporary improvements in either mental or physical functions or both. Examples of these kinds of effects may include enhanced alertness, wakefulness, and locomotion, among others."

In other words, stimulants make you high. And scientists believe that that high gives them an unfair advantage over their competitors, a minuscule one, but an advantage nonetheless.

Stimulants work by increasing dopamine levels in the brain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure, movement, and attention, according to various medical websites that I checked.

These chemical reactions, I suspect allow for the release of energy into the body that the experts believe gives athletes an edge over their competitors. But here's my question? If that is the case, shouldn't athletes be prevented from listening to music as well?

For the past few months, I have been on a whole lifestyle change that has seen me lose a lot of weight. People have been asking me if I was ill, while others have been urging me not to lose any more. It's strange how in this modern day and age people think that being overweight is a sign of good health. My body will ultimately tell me if I am losing too much, but for now, I am stronger and feeling as good as I ever have.

But I digress. Every other morning, I do a five-kilometre walk that leaves me feeling invigorated and ready to take on the world once I am done. There are days, however, when I wake up and my energy level is low and I don't feel like I want to exercise. My remedy for that is to plug headphones into my phone and select some great Techno music, and after a few minutes, I am ready to go. I feel energised, giddy sometimes by the beats, and when I go out walking, the music keeps me moving faster and faster even when my body is resisting.

While doing the research, I found this interesting piece on how music affects us. I quote from Healthline.com: "Emily Lewis, a graduate student at the California Institute of Integral Studies, who studies sound and healing, has focused her thesis on vocal improvisation and its effects on the brain.

"Listening to music, sound, and healing is all really about relaxing the nervous system," Lewis said. "It works on a cellular level." She examined research on telomeres - the end caps of DNA strands - and found that longer strands are correlated with both longevity and quality of life. "My research showed that doing vocal singing sessions is a way to bring you into the present moment," Lewis said. "Vocal improvisation is potentially a mindfulness practice and could be correlated to longer telomere lengths."

She said that singing is doubly beneficial for your body in that it helps relax you, but "also helps you to feel energised."

Note the last line, "it helps you to feel energised". Now, isn't that what a stimulant does? So why isn't music on the banned list, then? That's a question for the World Anti-Doping Agency.

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