Why Is The Michael Phelps Scandal Still Smoking?
The nation is still in mourning as we have found out that our national hero, 14-time gold medal winner Michael Phelps, is nothing but a common junkie. Photo evidence was found of Phelps filling his massive lungs with one Dave Matthews Band concert’s worth of marijuana smoke in one toke — probably while children were watching and taking note. As we shake our heads and mutter “Kids these days” and “But Obama said things would be different now!” maybe it’s time to revisit exactly what we expect from our Olympic athletes and whether we should even be getting all prudish about this in the first place.
Let’s be clear: Pretty much all the athletes at the Olympics were completely high. Half of them probably didn’t even fully understand where they were or what they were doing. If you’re wondering why none of the Olympic officials have noticed, it’s because they’re all coked out of their minds (how high were they when they added speed walking as an Olympic event?). The thing is, we expect our athletes to be role models. Kids look up to them, hoping they can swim fast and run fast and excel at all those other activities that are pretty much pointless in modern society where we have easy access to boats and cars. And as role models, we trust our Olympic athletes to do all their drugging and their boozing and their weird sex stuff and whatever behind closed doors. That’s a trust Phelps broke. And we’re not just talking about children being let down by his behavior, but also sponsors who have much more money and are much more important than stupid little kids who probably don’t even know how to find a drug dealer.
Many people are making excuses for Phelps. “He’s won so many gold medals,” they say. “If he wants to party a little, take a toke from a bong, or run over blind people, that’s not for us gold medal-less losers to question.” Others point out the rough childhood Phelps had from being the illegitimate son of Aquaman and lacking the support of his clearly disinterested mother. I tend to dismiss these points — not because I have a response but just because I’m generally dismissive of others — but what is worth contemplating is whether we should even consider if what he did was wrong.
Athletes are not role models.
By definition, the only thing that makes star athletes different from the rest of us is their physical prowess. That’s the ONLY thing that sets them apart, and we need to squash this idea that they also have to be “role models” into the bargain.
Who, then, are the role models to children? That’s easy.
Parents are role models.
To a lesser extent, teachers, preachers, and extended family, but that’s where it ends.
The whole idea of sportspeople being role models is a fantasy of the sporting establishment: a bureaucracy made up of retired athletes. They have an inflated idea of the importance of their profession on society at large, and impose draconian punishments on young sportsmen and women in the mistaken belief that it makes any difference at all.
Second hand Marijuana inspires violence. I hate its fricking smell and when some jerk starts blowing it into the building-wide AC duct I have nothing but murder on my mind.
Here is a great example of what happens when adults give a kid drugs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txqiwrbYGrs
boycott kelloggs
Hippies? How about potential hippies? If Phelps grew his hair long, what would that make him, besides homlier? Anyway, I agree entirely. While we’re rounding up these young drug users who didn’t get caught (except on tape or in their memoirs), bust that old doper that’s in the White House, as well.
“Also, back in the day (the 1990s) I spent a lot of time in arcades, and the video games there were all quite clear on the fact that “Winners Don’t Use Drugs.””
The 90s for you…were “Back in the Day”?
JEEEEEEEEZ. Someone put me in a wheelchair.
i placed a michael phelps sticker on my bong after hearing the news
As a seventy year old man,I lived through the era that is responsible for all the drug abuse in this country. Thank the baby-boomers for all of this nonsense.
15 million nickel-bags of grass a week was being supplied (we were told) by filled up hubcaps driven across the Mexican border. we still fail to make the connection even when the president and his federal officials put border guards in prison for interfering with this supply.
Well Oldguy, at least, I made my connection. The hubcaps are obsolete. Your neighbours are growing the “milfweed” just down the street. Time to give up this particular front in the war.
Kellogg’s should start adding THC to its cereals, if it wants to be the breakfast of champions.
If a photo of Phelps taking a hit from a bong, gets adults talking about young people using illegal substances that can get them fired from their job, kicked out of college, removed from the military with less than a honorable discharge, prosecuted when their blood or urine tests positive after an accident, or …..ta da ta da….. barred from participating in athletics where they may have a tremendous future, then, well, I think that it would be a topic of discussion that merits discussion. There is also the possibility that someone out there took his picture to 1. make money 2. see him fall and 3. does not care on iota about him.
Back to your article. You get an F.
Much ado about nothing.
There’s nothing America’s media loves more than the taste of the ashes of somebody else’s dreams.
Any culture that looks to its athletes for any modicum of ethical or moral leadership is a bankrupt one. As is any culture that would hand a lesser verdict to a perp because he can swim really fast.
Let’s face it, this is just more proof that winners do drugs. The majority of successful people whose photographs grace our newspapers drink and/or smoke pot. The west was won by whiskey-soaked alcoholics. Winston Churchill was often famously and cleverly drunk (although, like exercise or food, alcohol should be used in moderation)
If people tend to abuse substances, and if they overcome that addiction, they tend to replace it with other obsessions like the anhedonic prudish paranoia that someone, somewhere, may be having fun.
Conservative Muslims are the most temperate people on earth, and look at the “civilization” they created. Don’t be a loser – take a toke.
The problem here isn’t one of use; it’s illustrative of the way the law is usually applied differently between people, in the same way numerous members of Congress and the presidential cabinet are unindicted, unrepentant tax cheats. Either arrest him just as would happen to any one of us nobodies, or decriminalize already. No free person above the age of majority should be criminally held to account for putting any substance into his own body.
I don’t know why Kellogg’s decided not to renew their contract with Phelps.
You’d think they’d be all for Marijuana use. Seeing as how after after smoking it, the first thing you do is grab a box of cereal and start shoveling it into your mouth.
Everyone says marijuana is a harmless drug and what is the big deal? It is not harmless. I teach high school at an alternative high school. Many of my students are assigned to us for marijuana use. They cannot think straight, they have serious health issues, they are listless and refuse to work, many are 18 and still working on classes they have failed from their freshman year of high school, and they cannot stay awake in class. Many have harmed themselves further by soaking their blunts in embalming fluid to have an altered high and been hospitalized due to brain damage and heart problems.
It is not some harmless drug that should be legalized. It does change brain function and creates an underclass of “vegetables” who cannot get a job because they did not finish high school. And, yes, losers do take tokes.
Meg, for every one you name in your alternative curricula, I can name two that are successful. You could use the same argument against obesity and food. Some people are more prone to be obsessive compulsive than others.
I do agree that for kids, given the propensity to binge, it’s not healthy.
Sounds to me they don’t care.
Meg – substance addiction is not issue the same as substance use. Any substance can cause harm when someone over-uses it. People have died from taking too much Tylenol, or from drinking too much water.
Drug laws don’t prevent the kind of abuse that you’re talking about, just like prohibition didn’t prevent alcoholism. Obesity is a major problem in the US, and here in the nanny-state NYC area, they are trying to outlaw salts and fats. Do you think that will make a difference?
This wretched episode is just another illustration of the misery our ridiculous drug laws bring to the lives of harmless, productive people. The idea that Phelps is free to sicken himself with a toxic, sometimes lethal peasant drug like booze, but must be vilified for ingesting a far safer intoxicant, is barbaric hypocrisy.
I highly, HIGHLY doubt this was his first time. He has probably been smoking for years.
Marijuana is less harmful than alchohol or tobacco, or any other illegal drugs. No one has ever died from smoking Cannabis.
This just proves that one can smoke Marijuana and win 14 gold medals.
Everyone says marijuana is a harmless drug and what is the big deal? It is not harmless. I teach high school at an alternative high school. Many of my students are assigned to us for marijuana use. They cannot think straight, they have “serious health issues, they are listless and refuse to work, many are 18 and still working on classes they have failed from their freshman year of high school and they cannot stay awake in class.”
Smoking before responsibilities such as school is irresponsible. That doesn’t mean it’s bad for you.
“Many have harmed themselves further by soaking their blunts in embalming fluid to have an altered high and been hospitalized due to brain damage and heart problems.”
The fact that your students are borderline retards is in no way indicadive of Marjuana. BTW, where did they get embalming fluid? Does your school have a morgue? Or do you mean “PCP” (which embalming fluid is slang for.. also known as Sherm, Angel Dust, Amp, Rocket Fuel… terrible stuff, and in no way comparable to Marijuana)?
“It is not some harmless drug that should be legalized. It does change brain function and creates an underclass of “vegetables” who cannot get a job because they did not finish high school. And, yes, losers do take tokes.”
You clearly don’t know what your talking about. Michael Phelps is a pot head who won 14 gold medals. He’s a vegetable?
It’s people like you who reinforce my resolve to homeschool any future children I may have.
Mary Madigan: I thought the comment about conservative Muslims was a great insight.
Meg: You say you are a high school teacher. Although I don’t disagree with your point; why are your sentences so poorly constructed?
Kind regards, Ken
Typical hypocrasy… You’re a loser for smoking weed, yet you are a perfectly normal person, worthy of respect, if you drink alcohol.
Anyone who subscribes to that line of thinking is the WORSE KIND OF HYPOCRITE
Michael Phelps is an American Hero. He stood tall and made America proud at the Beijing Olympics. This is how America treats its heroes, we forget all of the hard work Michael Phelps did to achieve his task, we forget the pride we felt with the each gold medal, we forget how Phelps helped America to be competitive against a Chinese when they planned on winning all of the golds, we forget all of those things and hang a man for smoking glass pipe at a party. That is our shame; America cares little for appreciation and loyalty but is absolute when it comes to misplaced morality. In short America often finds it easier to tear people down and point fingers than it does to recognize freedom and practice good will. I hope they do try to arrest Michael Phelps to further shed light on our hypocrisy and maybe stir the good people of this country up enough to stand up for their friends and neighbors being persecuted in this “drug War”.
Meg is right when she says Marijuana use creates an underclass… It creates an underclass of people who are criminals for no reason other than their pot smokery…. it creates an entire class of otherwise law abiding citizens for the government and “law abiding” citizens to scapegoat, persecute and harass, heaping the blame on them for social ills that are entirely seperate (poverty, violent crime, etc).
Apparently nothing was learned from the 30′s.
Likewise, I am assuming most people on this website who are against Marijuana are in favor of the 2nd amendment. Let me ask… how is banning Marijuana any different from banning guns? How will taking away the rights of some to benefit others tackle underlying social ills and problems?
Frank (not FrankJ), are you high right now?
“Marijuana is less harmful than alchohol or tobacco”
No, it’s not. Smoking a joint has the same effect on the lungs as, say, smoking 4 cigs all at once. And not too many folks get into fatal car wrecks because their reaction time was diminished by Marlboro Reds.
Don’t get me wrong, I think smoking is a great way of displaying how little self respect a person has, but come on now- this whole “my drug of choice is better than yours” is such a moot point; it’s like saying guys who drink light beer are morally superior to those who drink stouts.
And on that subject, what the hell is “alchohol”? Seriously- put the pyrex pipe down for a while.
Like most athletes, Michael is just your average blow
who has a tremendous talent for one specific thing, and not much else.
Mentally, he hardly knows the formula for water. And with no sense of humor, a less than mensa IQ, the moment he has to think he’s in over his head.
So why is anybody surprised when, like a lemming, he tokes with his friends. He has the intellect of an Obama supporter because his mind is filled with a mixture of mush and sloth.
Anyone who thinks that Michael Phelps could be a spokesperson for why pot should become a legalized drug go ahead, call him and ask. The fact is that it is illegal, and if detected in the blood or urine of a young person can lead to them being fired, prosecuted and/or stigmatized. Until that changes it is a big deal, and I am not forwarding the idea that Phelps should be punished or stigmatized for a photo. He will however find out that not everyone with a camera is friendly and admiring, and he should be cautious who he picks for his friends as he was when he was young. For as many people there are who cheered him at the Olympics there are just as many who would cheer at his failure.
“No, it’s not. Smoking a joint has the same effect on the lungs as, say, smoking 4 cigs all at once. And not too many folks get into fatal car wrecks because their reaction time was diminished by Marlboro Reds.”
————————————
Once again, No one has ever died from Marijuana. How many people do you know ended up hooked up to an iron lung because they smoked nothing but pot all their life? None. How much additives and additional chemicals are put in Marijauna? None (don’t believe that sh*t about dealers spiking weed with crack or PCP; it isn’t true). Also, people who smoke pot typically don’t smoke 13-25 joints a day, the way people who smoke cigarettes do. Smoking a joint isn’t the only way to ingest Marijuana. You could smoke it in a bong, which removes much of the harshness on the lungs by filtering it through water. You could vaporize it, which only heats up the THC and none of the plant matter, eliminating much of the health risk. Or, you could cook it. There is absolutely ZERO health risk with weed brownies or cookies.
And why do you bring up driving? Yes, driving while high can cause accidents. That’s why you don’t drive while high. Driving while drunk can kill you; does that mean we should ban alcohol? That is a fallacious straw man argument… Try again.
“Don’t get me wrong, I think smoking is a great way of displaying how little self respect a person has, but come on now- this whole “my drug of choice is better than yours” is such a moot point; it’s like saying guys who drink light beer are morally superior to those who drink stouts.”
I didn’t “my drug of choice is superior to your”. I said it’s hypocritical to be fine with alcohol and cigarettes and yet hate on marijuana. Are you against alcohol and cigarettes as well? Or are did you arbitrarily choose to hate on Marijuana because you don’t personally like it?
Oh, and sorry, I made a typo. I guess my entire argument is moot.
To answer your question, no, I’m not high, but I’m about to be
And on that subject, what the hell is “alchohol”? Seriously- put the pyrex pipe down for a while.
That should be “I didn’t SAY “my drug of choice is superior to yours”. Normally I wouldn’t bother with a new post just to correct a minor typo, but apparently, typos make my argument invalid
Was Phelps too stoned on signing day to remember the clause about substance abuse and illegal behavior in his contract with Kellog? Regardless of whether drugs are illegal, he was presumably contractually obligated to avoid the sort of behavior in which he had participated and which had gotten him in trouble in the past. Phelps makes a poor poster boy for efforts in the way of decriminalizing drugs in that he is hardly the victim of arguably ill-concieved policies of a government run amok. So those who wish to legalize drugs will have to find someone else upon whom to hang the dreams of a cannibis infested utopia. Michael Phelps is a victim of Michael Phelps.
This is a sleeper hold story captivating the minds of a sleeping society, looking to make themselves feel better admist economic turmoil. Condemn the kid, support him, who cares? There are a hell of a lot more important events taking place than a pop-celeb using drugs. No good or change will come from this, so let this story put you back to sleep–comfortably numb, that is.
I’ve smoked a gram or two of weed a day for over a decade… I have no serious health problems.
My uncle drank alcohol every day for about the same time. His heart gave out, and he died.
Yep, pot is just as bad.
Daddy Dave – The whole idea of sportspeople being role models is a fantasy of the sporting establishment: a bureaucracy made up of retired athletes. They have an inflated idea of the importance of their profession on society at large, and impose draconian punishments on young sportsmen and women in the mistaken belief that it makes any difference at all.
Unfortunately, it is not a fantasy. We strive to see young people grow up healthy, popular, competive, attractive, moral, and well educated. We cut slack if someone misses the mark somewhat in one or more of those areas, or is strong in only one or two but clearly standout from the rest in one or two areas of strength that turn out to be “enough” to have a very good life ahead of them. And maybe too much, we make those “exemplars” role models – even if we really want kids going to be good in all areas rather than hoping they are more like “Mr Quiz Kid” or the dumb as rocks running back showcased for 3 years and getting a Div 1A Scholarship, or the completely immoral, popular but stupid cheerleader you know is headed for Hollywood or porn films or marriage to a real rich guy.
The plump little dweeb with 800 SATs will likely be a success, but many parents would prefer them to be – given a choice, an attractive, popular athlete with a solid “B” average??
Somehow, adults seem to focus later-life resentments on “Jocks” who turn out less than morally pure, do stupid things (Here’s looking at you, Plexico and Ray Lewis), get fat, don’t find success or popularity after their sports years end, or…God help us…do drugs that provide recreation or give them a chance to spend more years competitive or in the case of pros..competitive enough or around longer so they make more money..(Steroids meant better pay and longer terms of being employed).
We don’t do that with those adults who excel in areas we want kids to excel in outside sports.
How many people rise up and denounce the latest Hollywood starlet bound for rehab as a failed role model, though every Mom secretly wanted their daughter to turn out as popular and gorgeous as the cheerleader who was already doing modeling and minor acting gigs at 16?
How many people indignantly denounced Bernie Madoff as a “failed role model” for kids?
Or the Korean scientists who had brilliant scholastic records other kids and parents envied, but who committed scientific fraud?
The superpopular charismatic guy who fathered 7 kids out of wedlock and was behind bars by age 23. Why is he not denounced as a “failed role model” by huffy journalists?
The truth is we adapted this bizarre journalistic convention early on, just as sports and mass media intersected, and made a bargain…sportsmen would be elevated to heroes over others with great success in using attributes we wanted in our kids..They would be proxies for the success or failure of whole high schools, universities, cities, even nations by their victories and defeats. Meaningless statistics would be compiled and give testimony to some “greatness, a significant record!” – but in return, the athletes would comply with the Moral Code that journalists embedded into the meme…the 100-year long narrative.
Not something they did with dumb royals like Lady Di, rock stars with their dicks hanging out, violent killer celebrity criminals or revolutionaries, Hollywood sluts, and high-profile CEOs, scientists, or Italian sanitation company owners…who the journalists actually liked having some ‘badness’, ‘dangerous aura’ – clinging to them.
Sometimes politicians were held to athlete “hero” Moral Standards, but not unless it was so open and obvious that the journalists and writers HAD to lay the moral law down. Meanwhile, the same cabal had risen to celebrity status themselves and yet no one went after Bernstien on his sex harassment pleas, Geraldo on his immoral exploitative sleaze, Moyers for milking public funds to enrich himself…and so on..
I treat Phelps as no big deal. For me, the thing that will be remembered is he was part of the relay that Jason Lezak swam the miracle leg that will be on the OLympic highlights forever, and Sarah Hughes only got one medal, and barely got Gold. But her final program in 2002 was like Bob Beamons long jump – a magical elevation beyond what had ever been done before in their athletic performance. That would not be diminished if I hear later that age 30, Hughes gets popped for failing to get her 2009 taxes right or was spotted smoking a joint. Big deal!
Jimbob: Yes, he is a victim of exactly that. Anyone in jail for non-violent Marijuana offenses is as well.
If his contract forbade him from such behaviour, than he should be terminated. But there should be no public demonization.
Leave the guy alone.It is not against the law to smoke pot…it’s against the law to possess it.Under an ounce and a half has been de-criminalized to a “civil” infraction.Do we actually know for sure that he was indeed smoking pot?Could it have been crack or maybe hashish? The democrats are trying to shove 900 billion dollars down our throats for my kids to re- pay…thats the real crime here.
Our current president smoked, no?
If you can smoke pot, and be president (while admitting it), there’s really no taboo anymore.
There is more buzz over Mike’s smoking than Obama’s use of a multitude of drugs throughout the campaign.
LOL! “I’ve smoked a gram or two of weed a day for over a decade…”
Really? No kidding? We couldn’t tell.
“I have no serious health problems.”
Perhaps not physically. But you’re not thinking clearly- for at least a decade- and that’s a problem. Why people can’t cope without some kind of substance or another is a problem, too. So, yes, pot is just as bad in that regard as alcohol, or perhaps it’s as benign as caffiene, but still.
As far as you defending your typos & crying foul about the way the pot pseudo-culture is persecuted, let me redefine what I was trying to convey: Your spelling wasn’t the main thing I implied was flawed.
Jeeze, it’s just too bad how pot smokers are treated just like holocaust victims, isn’t it Frank? In fact, it’s like the struggle against genocide in Africa! Woe unto those who are in a THC-induced stupor! Woe unto those who aren’t smart enough to know better!!!
I really feel for your plight here…being persecuted for something so ignorant, illegal, and trivial at best. It’s a damn shame.
If Phelps was black this wouldn’t even be an issue, but in today’s American society white caucasion males are at the bottom of the politically correct heap. In fact most of the time they aren’t even in the politically correct heap, but the garbage heap, especially if they are conservative.
This guy totally botched the PR side of this thing. Tons of hate involved.
http://hateonme.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie37ciAOOQ0
Barry er Barack smoked the ganja and now he’s PRESIDENT. We better take all of those pictures of Barack off of the magazine covers!
-And… *AHEM* “Tony the Tiger” seems a little too ‘happy’ if you get my meaning.
Where’s the Hypocrisy/irony bell?
No dog in this fight, but would those of you boldly arguing that “Pot is no worse than alcohol or tobacco” kindly STFU.
I used that argument once in 1969, when a short shot and a beer was 75 cents and a pack of smokes was a quarter. And my minister smoked.
Just, just, shut up will you. Don’t you know where you’re living? Pick on Coca-cola or chewing gum or something for a change.
Phelps had a DUI at 19, so he’s not a stranger to these kinds of activities.
He’s an athletic superstar because he turned his energy to a sport where getting multiple medals is possible by design, and where it is physiologically and statistically possible to set multiple world records. He’s most definetely a great athlete, but his accomplishments are overblown in context. The point is we hype people way past their actual worth both when they catch our imagination (as athletes or performers), or when they become CEOs of companies they didn’t found nor had they invented anything or started a new industry. We encourage this as asociety, and deserve to have such overrated jerks betray our good faith and goodwill.
John Galt: If Phelps was black this wouldn’t even be an issue, but in today’s American society white caucasion males are at the bottom of the politically correct heap. In fact most of the time they aren’t even in the politically correct heap, but the garbage heap, especially if they are conservative.
HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA
Somebody call a whaaaaambulance for the poor oppressed white guy. Obviously you don’t live in today’s America.
In today’s America, if you’re arrested for drugs, you’re more likely to get a second chance if you’re white.
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/10/race_and_drug_use.html
From one cracker to another, shut up and learn some facts before running your mouth. The world has enough Limbaughs and O’Reillys.
comatus: No dog in this fight, but would those of you boldly arguing that “Pot is no worse than alcohol or tobacco” kindly STFU.
I used that argument once in 1969, when a short shot and a beer was 75 cents and a pack of smokes was a quarter. And my minister smoked.
What the hell are you talking about? What does any of this have to do with your minister? What the hell do I care that a pack of smokes was a quarter?
If you’re going to tell people to kindly STFU, next time please have a coherent, rational topic to fill the silence. Thank you.
“In today’s America, if you’re arrested for drugs, you’re more likely to get a second chance if you’re white.”….”Somebody call a whaaaaambulance for the poor oppressed white guy.”
Steve P, John Galt’s comment was about media treatment. The arrest statistics you cite are a different topic, although of course they are a cause for concern.
By the way Steve, your spoilt-child manner of speaking is obnoxious.
Just more evidence that Phelps is a regular all-American kid.
Legalize it.
Peace.
DS
So what? Michael Phelps burned one, or two, who cares?
I remember sitting around a table in the hinterlands of Alaska, many years ago, when the question of piss testing of aviation professionals was being raised. Out of those sitting at the table, I remember those most in favor of dope testing. One ran a C-402 into Sledge Island, off of Nome. One ran a PA-31 into Nelson Island. One didn’t get killed but but wrecked enough airplanes that he became unemployable.
Those not in favor of dope testing? One died enroute from Kodiak to Anchorage, on a day that was marked by extreme atmospheric turbulence. His airplane broke up in flight.
The rest of us are still extant. To my knowledge, none of us still flies.
The bottom line is that if you are any kind of a professional, you show up for work straight and ready to do the job to which you are assigned. What you did two weeks ago on your own time is irrelevant. Thank you.
I’m afraid you were born about 135 years after drug abuse was common in this country and a few hundred more after it was a problem on this land mass.
True in one sense, but you got it backwards. If he were not famous the police and the rest of us would not have seen the picture and the SC Sheriff wouldn’t feel like he had to do something.
How stoned are you?
As a wise man once wrote,
Honest, he’s got glocoma.
drugs are drugs. stop making excuses for trash. phelps just took a plunge in the image pool. n if he does not watch it, he’ll go down the same rd as tyson. role model? hahaha.. i agree with dave.
Cut the man some slack jack. Can prosecutors prove there was marijuana in the bong at the moment of inahalation? But all legal BS aside imagine you’re next to get a hit off a joint and the guy before you is Phelps. With his lung capacity you’d be lucky to get a roach’s worth, even if he lit it! Hey Phelps don’t Bogart that joint!
This story isn’t all bad. Michael Phelps provided what I like to call a “teachable moment” for me and my son. We were watching the news yesterday morning before school when this story came on and I looked at the kid and said. “This just goes to show you, no matter how famous you get to be or what stupid thing you do to embarrass the family, one of your idiot friends is going to capture it in living color and post it on Facebook and I WILL find out. So tell me do you feel lucky, punk?”
He just laughed – but his PopTart was trembling a little.
Thank you Michael Phelps for helping me put the Fear of Mom into my son.
I could care less about Michael Phelps smoking pot. It’s no big deal. What century are we in? A few bong hits are healthier and safer than a martini. And for those who say “it’s illegal!” Well, so was a martini in the U.S. many decades ago. Prohibition was a disaster then, it’s a disaster now. I’m glad to see most of Phelps’s sponsors standing by him. I am boycotting Kelloggs for being one of the few who ditched him. If the last thre presidents could smoke pot and even do cocaine and still make it to the highest office on the planet, then clearly the worst thing about drug use is not drug use but the jail time many serve merely for using it. Why is it okay for Clinton, Bush and Obama, but not okay for the rest of us? It’s just pot. It’s the image that is tainted. Actually more and mroe Americans are voting in favor or marijuana reform and decriminalizing it. Regardless of state, red or blue, it’s one of the few issues that sees no party bias. The last election every single state or locality that had a marijuana reform referendum saw it pass overwhelmingly. Go Michael Phelps!
“Michael Phelps is an American Hero. He stood tall and made America proud at the Beijing Olympics. This is how America treats its heroes…”
Actually, this is how the biritsh treat American heros. It was a british tabloid that published the pics. What sickens me about the whole thing is Phelps was not an outspoken critic of pot smoking and then was caught red handed. I could understand publishing the photos for that reason. There was no reason to publish these photos other than to try to ruin an American great. Thanks, britain for being such hostile, angry brats who hate to see Americans succeed. I can’t wait for an American tabloid to publish pics of your queen sitting on the toilet!
Hopefully Frank Fleming hasn’t thrown himself out a second-story window yet because of his exasperation that almost no one commenting here has realized that his article was satire. How ironic that the earnestness with which it has been treated devalues the hard work Mr. Fleming put in to create it.
Personally, I think using drugs should at worst be punishable by a fine. Dealing drugs, however, should be ten years first offense, twenty five for the second and life on the third, with a felony murder charge if any of your customers die from overdose.
The same clowns that have “suspended” him will be wanting him to promote their own fund raising and lobbying efforts.
He should tell them to shove it.
Athletes are put on a pedestal, regardless if they are professional or amateur.
Frankly, I could live in a world where there are fewer obese, and fewer people on pedestals.
Ah, the War On Drugs continues.
29 years and no end in sight.
But I’m sure victory is just around the corner.
57. Michael:
Well put!
#58 Tim
Oh I think the rest of us get it, Tim. But lets face it, we just aren’t as funny as FrankJ.
This kid is a complete buffoon. Other then being able to swim fast across a pool due to his naturally odd physique, he has nothing else to offer this planet.
This is a big deal. Here in Canada one of our snowboarders did it a few years ago. His career was greatly enhanced after it…not ruined! Michael will be back stronger than ever.
But… isn’t he dead? I thought that drugs killed you.
Is he a Republican? I remember one person currently in government admitted to cocaine use and it never appeared in the news. I wonder who that person is.
#58
Thanks, Tim. I got really close, but my wife pulled me back.
If the guy can smoke MJ and be a world-class athlete, then maybe it’s time we all admitted that there’s nothing wrong with it and let all those harmless stoners out of jail.
“it’s like saying guys who drink light beer are morally superior to those who drink stouts.”
Alan making statements like these and then criticizing Frank’s intelligence is pretty bold. The argument for legalizing marijuana doesn’t resemble your analogy in the slightest.
Alcohol and pot are both mind-altering substances. The arguments for keeping marijuana illegal can be aimed at alcohol as well, no? Maybe you can think of some that can’t. It’s inconsistent to demonize one while not the other. It’s not about moral superiority. Taking it one step further, why are cigarettes legal? They serve no purpose, except to destroy the body. At least marijuana and alcohol can claim some health benefits.
Make them all illegal or none of them. Either way, people are obviously going to do what they want.
Cowlove says: “Make them all illegal or none of them. Either way, people are obviously going to do what they want.”
Currently says: “Make none of them illegal. Americans are going to do what they want.”
That picture of Michael Phelps taking a bong hit is a powerful advertisement against smoking pot. Phelps was just dumb to let his picture be taken that way. He lost a lot of money right then. Pot makes you dumb.
Maybe that’s why President Obama says “uh” so much.
President Obamuh, uh, uh.
70 n8: Right on! Exactly! And if the last three presidents could do it and still become president, even more reason to decriminalize it. The hypocrisy is that there are people in prison for doing as much as Obama, Bush and Clinton did. It’s the jail time that ruins peoples lives, not the drugs. More Americans are waking up to this fact, thank god. Now if only the Swedes could figure it out…
Man, you must really be a nerd, nobody’s called hippies anymore. That’s old school dude. How you made thru teens and 20s without smoking weed, I have no idea. I say ban alcohol that kills more people every year than all the wars we’ve ever had, and legalize marijuana. There are senior citizens still smoking it. The only side effect I know of is raiding the fridge.
Let’s face it, we all like our heroes to have a whiff of brimstone about them.
George W. Bush substance abuse controversy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Former President George W. BushAllegations of substance abuse have arisen during the political career of 43rd and previous United States President George W. Bush, leading to controversy. Bush admits to abusing alcohol until age forty.
Bush has described his days before his religious conversion in his 40s as his “nomadic” period and “irresponsible youth” and admitted to drinking “too much” in those years. In Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President by James Hatfield, Bush is quoted as saying that “alcohol began to compete with my energies … I’d lose focus”. Although Bush states that he was not an alcoholic, he has acknowledged that he was “drinking too much”,[1] and that he couldn’t remember a day when he hadn’t had a drink, including his stay at Phillips Academy, where not only was he underage but alcohol was prohibited on campus, as well as at Yale University where, conversely, “hard drinking” was considered a badge of honor (Hatfield).
Bush’s drinking may not have caused problems were it not for his tendency to become excessively uninhibited, according to reports of friends. In the article referenced above, Nicholas D. Kristof quotes Bush’s cousin Elsie Walker as saying, “He was a riot. But afterward, when you’re older, that can wear thin”, and gives the example of Bush asking a “proper” female friend of his parents at a family cocktail party, “So, what’s sex like after 50, anyway?”[1]
In December 1966 (age 20), he was arrested for disorderly conduct after he and some friends had “a few beers” and stole a Christmas wreath from a hotel.[2] The charges were later dropped.
On September 4, 1976 (age 30), Bush was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol near his family’s summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine. He admitted his guilt, was fined US$150, and had his driving license in the state suspended for two years, although the White House had claimed 30 days.[3] This incident did not become public knowledge until it was reported by Erin Fehlau of Maine TV station WPXT-TV in the week before the 2000 election.
The most notorious episode, reported in numerous diverse sources including U.S. News & World Report on November 1, 1999, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq by Robert Parry, First Son: George W. Bush and the Bush Family Dynasty by Bill Minutaglio, and W: Revenge of the Bush Dynasty by Elizabeth Mitchell, has 26-year-old George W. Bush visiting his parents in Washington, D.C. over the Christmas vacation in 1972, shortly after the death of his grandfather, and taking his 16-year-old brother Marvin out drinking. On the way home George lost control of the car and ran over a waste container, but continued home with the garbage can wedged noisily under the car. When his father, George H. W. Bush, called him on the carpet for not only his own behavior but for exposing his younger brother to risk, George W., still under the influence, appears to have retorted angrily, “I hear you’re looking for me. You wanna go mano-a-mano right here?” Before the elder Bush could reply, the situation was defused by brother Jeb, who took the opportunity to surprise his father with the happy news that George W. had been accepted to Harvard Business School.[4]
During the 2000 presidential campaign, Bush said that he gave up drinking after waking up with a hangover after his 40th birthday celebration: “I quit drinking in 1986 and haven’t had a drop since then.” He ascribed the change in part to a 1985 meeting with Reverend Billy Graham, after which he began serious Bible study, as well as to gentle but persistant pressure from his wife, Laura.[5][6][7] Friends recall that Bush said nothing of his decision, even to Laura, until many weeks later when they realized that he had not had so much as a single beer in the interim.
An editorial letter by Graydon Carter in Vanity Fair for January 2008 quotes a new book about Bush:
“a new book by former British foreign secretary Lord Owen may supply a clue. In The Hubris Syndrome: Bush, Blair, and the Intoxication of Power (ISBN 1842752197), Owen recalls the time in 2002 when the commander in chief collapsed while sitting on a sofa watching a football game. (Official cause: he’d choked on a pretzel.) The presidential head hit a table on the way to the floor, he suffered an abrasion on the left side of his face, and a blood sample was rushed to Johns Hopkins [Hospital] , in Baltimore. Owen says he was told by a British doctor who had visited Johns Hopkins that lab technicians there found that the blood contained significant amounts of alcohol.”[8]
Since then, a photograph[9] was taken on June 7, 2007, of Bush drinking what appears to be a beer at the G8 Summit in Heiligendamm, Germany. However, a German newspaper, citing White House sources, has said it was Buckler, a non-alcoholic beer.[10]
During an official visit in Rome on June 12, 2008, Bush had an official lunch with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano during which both white and red wine was served. [11]
On November 23, 2008 Bush was photographed drinking Pisco Sour during an APEC summit in Lima, Peru.[12]
[edit] Illegal drugs
Bush has refused to discuss speculation that he has used illegal drugs, but has said that when his father became president in 1989 and required White House employees to affirm that they had not used illegal drugs for 15 years, he would have passed that test.[13][14]
A conversation between Bush and an old friend, author, Doug Wead, touched on the subject of use of illegal drugs. In the taped recording of the conversation, Bush explained his refusal to answer questions about whether he had used marijuana at some time in his past. “I wouldn’t answer the marijuana questions,” Bush says. “You know why? Because I don’t want some little kid doing what I tried.”[15] When Wead reminded Bush of his earlier public denial of using cocaine, Bush replied, “I haven’t denied anything.”[16]
In 1999, St. Martin’s Press published a book[17] claiming that Bush had been arrested for cocaine possession and that he had the record expunged. The publisher claimed at the time that the book had been “carefully fact-checked and scrutinized by lawyers,” but soon afterwards recalled it and pulped all copies after it came to light that author James Hatfield had been convicted in 1988 of attempted murder and in 1992 of embezzlement, had spent five years in prison, and had falsely claimed that his vanity novel about James Bond was authorised by the copyright holder.[18]
In February 2004, Eric Boehlert in Salon magazine claimed that Bush’s cessation of flying in April 1972 and his subsequent refusal to take a physical examination came at the same time the Air Force announced a Medical Service Drug Abuse Testing Program, which, he wrote, was officially launched on April 21, 1972. He further claimed that while the drug testing took years to implement, “as of April 1972, Air National guardsmen knew random drug testing was going to be implemented.”[19] Other sources indicate that the U.S. military did not introduce drug testing until the 1980s.[20]
Let me get this straight; 1. There are two legalized substances that have caused a great amount of harm to our society (alcohol and tobacco), so we should add another one just to round it off to an uneven three. 2. Just because some people have smoked pot and didn’t get addicted that rules out all the other casualties.
This is a classic example of imposing ones will because of all the self-righteousness in this country. Why I’m not a conservative, nor a liberal. give me liberty to do what I want as long it doesn’t break the golden rule. I doubt half the people on this post know why MJ was outlawed in the first place…one of the great scares perpetuated by the media. everything in moderation…you know one can die from water poisoning don’t you? I also respect Michael far more than the insolent Rachel Peepers who values her own intellect and integrity so much that she has to trash a 23 rear old. You have no idea how hard it is to do what he has done…and generally swimmers are the most intelligent athletes that I’ve ever encountered. So brand the kid an idiot savant. But don’t crucify him for a bong hit. It’s counterproductive to training anyway, or hadn’t you figured that out.
anita,
1. No, not at all. My argument was actually that they should all 3 be illegal, or all 3 be legal. The arguments made against pot and for the other two (alcohol and tobacco) can be inverted every time. I would change this stance if you could succinctly tell me why alcohol and tobacco should remain legal and pot should remain illegal by using an argument that can only be applied in that way.
2. What other casualties? Are they in any way similar to the vast numbers of people suffering with alcoholism? What about the people dying of lung cancer? Throat cancer? That a negative aspect of marijuana use can be found isn’t the point at all, seeing as a negative aspect of both alcohol and tobacco use is even more prevalent. Furthermore, is there ANY positive aspect of tobacco use at all? I don’t know of it, but I’m open-minded.
I personally don’t have a dog in this fight, but it amuses me to no end to see people demonize marijuana for reasons that are right in front of their faces due to perfectly legal substances.
Lets get serious. If you want to stop drugs that cause problems then #1 is alcohol. We’ve been there and done that. If it weren’t for demonizing of “dirty Mexicans” in the 1920s and 30s marijuana would be legal. They couldn’t rail against the white jazz musicians who were introduced to the musician’s friend by Louis Armstrong so the enemy targeted was “dirty Mexicans”.
“If men got cramps marijuana would be a sacrament”
Nice Dave Matthews Band reference, very funny.
“And as role models, we trust our Olympic athletes to do all their drugging and their boozing and their weird sex stuff and whatever behind closed doors. That’s a trust Phelps broke.”
- i think this was very well said. That’s why people are still talking about this. Phelps didn’t even try to deny it and i think people were definitely caught off guard. Coming to the harsh realization that someone so seemingly perfect and inhuman is really just another normal guy… is never easy.
Yeah Pot is a very potent and it’s an illegal substance in US. Many things been said and many opinions exist about legalizing it or not?
As of right now its still an open, undecided question. And while many waiting for resolution, you can either do what your stars( Nicole, Paris, Linsey, Britney, Brad, Phelps) do and ignore the law or you can try smoking something legal, or quit.
For those of you still seeking for new spiritual experiences I would recommend a Legal Herbal Smoking of such herbs as Salvia, Kanna, Wild Dagga, etc;)
More info on topic here: http://www.down-the-pipe.com/pages.php?pageid=2
You can also find there everything youll need to start smoking legal herbs and mixtures, pipes, bongs, and accessories;)
Hope this will help;)
what matter happens, i’m still avid fan of MICHAEL PHELPS!
I think he should stop smoking.
The