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Re: Olympic champion Michael Phelps busted with a bong...
If you can explain to me how this makes these people unable to do their jobs well...then you have a point. If your job is to be sober all the time, then you have a point.
I do not care that he smoked weed and even don't care if he does it again.
Like I said in my first post. I'm not getting into whether weed should be leaglized or what the health effects are BUT the fact is weed is illegal. DUI's are illegal. That's the difference. Role models, people kids look up to, leaders, people who represent your country on a national stage commiting illegal acts for all to see. That's the difference. Figure it out because it's an extremely valid point whether you agree or not.
This isn't about your's or mine or anyone elses opinion on weed, it's simply a fact that it's illegal, he's paid to keep a clean image, and in fact when it comes to his real job the drug is a banned substance as well so..... it's not about what we think it's about what is.
Re: Olympic champion Michael Phelps busted with a bong...
mitchejw wrote:If you can explain to me how this makes these people unable to do their jobs well...then you have a point. If your job is to be sober all the time, then you have a point.
I do not care that he smoked weed and even don't care if he does it again.
Like I said in my first post. I'm not getting into whether weed should be leaglized or what the health effects are BUT the fact is weed is illegal. DUI's are illegal. That's the difference. Role models, people kids look up to, leaders, people who represent your country on a national stage commiting illegal acts for all to see. That's the difference. Figure it out because it's an extremely valid point whether you agree or not.
This isn't about your's or mine or anyone elses opinion on weed, it's simply a fact that it's illegal, he's paid to keep a clean image, and in fact when it comes to his real job the drug is a banned substance as well so..... it's not about what we think it's about what is.
only Americans freak out about this stuff
Re: Olympic champion Michael Phelps busted with a bong...
WRONG! I'm Canadian and I know alot of people who share my opinion on this. Nobody's freaking out. They're shaking their head at the how a guy with everything is willing to risk it over driving drunk and smoking weed. The majority fo teh people I know do smoke weed many of them on a regular basis and even they shake their head at what the guy did. It's the same deal as Ricky William's. Mitchjw if you had your dream career but smoking weed could put that in jeopardy would you smoke it? If so that's pretty fucking stupid. Luckily for Phelps he'll likley get a pass but he's had two strikes now. Nobody is really condoning is use of weed it's more about is terribley poor judgement. Weed just happens to be this paticular poor judgement call. Last time it was the DUI.
Re: Olympic champion Michael Phelps busted with a bong...
Mitchjw if you had your dream career but smoking weed could put that in jeopardy would you smoke it? If so that's pretty fucking stupid. Luckily for Phelps he'll likley get a pass but he's had two strikes now.
if i already had enough money from my dream career maybe i'd be up for putting it in jeopardy. he's 23. he did what a lot of other people his age are doing. give him the same punishment they get and move on.
he didn't ask to be a public person and where does it say being a public person one has to be a saint? i don't think what he did was ok but turning it into such a "tragedy" is a little exaggerated.
and about the teen role model, if parents can't teach their children better that's not phelps' fault. how many of the people here smoked weed because one of their idols did it and how many were influenced by their entourage, telling them it's the cool thing to do?
Re: Olympic champion Michael Phelps busted with a bong...
Bono, I do understand what you're saying...but continuing this mode of thinking that these petty little drug crimes are such a big deal is only going to continue to make it grow and exist.
He didn't hurt anyone...He didn't drive drunk...He didn't drive high...it's shit like this that will gradually desensitize us to the harmless little act of smoking pot.
and this is coming from someone who hasn't smoked weed in about 5 years
Re: Olympic champion Michael Phelps busted with a bong...
You guys don't get it. He's being paid millions in endorsements, he's a representative of your country and he is promoted as role model. If you can't comprehend that than forget it.
so stop his funding, throw his ass in jail or whatever the punishment is and move on.
any citizen is a representative of his own country. i get what you're saying, that he's a million dollar kid and he should be more responsible. but why when a normal kid smokes weed it's not that bad and when it's someone well known it is such a big deal?
if bono was caught smoking weed would you make such a big fuss? would you stop listening to u2?
Re: Olympic champion Michael Phelps busted with a bong...
Interesting article, It'd be funny if this guy & event spearheaded the decriminilzation of pot.
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Jill Porter: Phelps a toke-ing of pot legalizers' affection
By Jill Porter
Philadelphia Daily News
Daily News Columnist
THE PHOTOGRAPH of Michael Phelps smoking pot through a bong might indeed change attitudes.
Not toward Phelps - who'll survive this controversy swimmingly - but toward marijuana.
Instead of forcing him from his pedestal, Phelps' recreational use of marijuana will no doubt push the pendulum further along the road to liberalization of pot laws.
As well it should.
The very fact that the Olympian athlete hasn't been deep-sixed by some of his sponsors shows how tolerant our society has become of the recreational use of weed.
If this were 10 years ago, "I'm sure most of his commercial supporters would drop him like his hair was on fire," said an official of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
While some major sponsors remained silent as of yesterday afternoon - including Kellogg's, which put Phelps on Corn Flakes boxes - so far, Speedo, luxury watchmaker Omega, Hilton Hotels Corp. and the makers of the sports drink Pure Sport have issued statements of support.
Corporations are anything but altruistic. If they thought that the Phelps incident would cost them customers and cash, they'd abandon the Olympic swimmer in a heartbeat.
They didn't.
"The baby boomers who run corporations do not see cannabis use as demonstration of turpitude," said Allen St. Pierre, NORML executive director.
(By way of disclosure, I haven't smoked marijuana in 30 years - not that I disapprove. It's just that wine is my drug of choice.)
The fact is that 75 percent of the public favors decriminalization and the medical use of marijuana, St. Pierre said.
And 46 of 50 states have reduced possession from a felony to a misdemeanor, including Pennsylvania.
It's a long way from the demonization of "reefer" to the popular Showtime series "Weeds," about a suburban mom who sells pot.
It's a long way from Bill Clinton supposedly declining to inhale to Barack Obama openly asserting that he had: "That was the point," he said.
And marijuana use by likable, wholesome athletes such as Michael Phelps can only advance the evolution of attitudes.
It helps that Phelps reacted perfectly when the photo of him inhaling through a bong at a private party got international exposure last week.
He gave the mandatory mea culpa while pointing out that he's still young and susceptible to the missteps of youth.
Frankly, if my sports heroes have to fall from grace, I'd rather they do it with a bong than with a bullet or a blow to a spouse's face.
If Phelps screwed up, good for him. All of us ought to give ourselves the opportunity to screw up. And if we don't do it while we're young, we might do it when we're older and have a lot more to lose.
But increasingly our society doesn't view what Phelps did as screwing up - unless you have hero worship and millions of dollars in endorsements to lose.
The evolving opinions about marijuana, based on evidence of its relative harmlessness, are reflected in generational attitudes, NORML's St. Pierre said, using his own family as the example.
His 88-year-old grandmother thinks pot is a corrupting, evil substance; his 63-year-old mother favors decriminalization and medical access but not legalization; he's 43 and "totally keen on taxation and control."
"Sad as it's going to be to watch my grandmom's generation attritiate, with her goes the 'reefer madness' mentality," St. Pierre said.
And with the world's economy in the tank, the $7.7 billion spent on prohibition enforcement - according to a Harvard economist - surely could be put to better use.
As for Phelps, I doubt that his reputation will be seriously tarnished. If anything, it has a warm polish of realism, and the incident just might help propel changes in our drug policies.
Not to mention it might help explain Phelps' extraordinary appetite.
"People have wondered how he eats 21,000 calories a day," St. Pierre joked in a reference to the notorious weed-induced "munchies."
"Now we know." *
Re: Olympic champion Michael Phelps busted with a bong...
Bono wrote:You guys don't get it. He's being paid millions in endorsements, he's a representative of your country and he is promoted as role model. If you can't comprehend that than forget it.
so stop his funding, throw his ass in jail or whatever the punishment is and move on.
any citizen is a representative of his own country. i get what you're saying, that he's a million dollar kid and he should be more responsible. but why when a normal kid smokes weed it's not that bad and when it's someone well known it is such a big deal?
if bono was caught smoking weed would you make such a big fuss? would you stop listening to u2?
That ^^ is fucking ridiuclous. Like I said you don't get it at all. You obviously DO NOT GRASP what I'm saying at all. Throw him in Jail? What the fuck? Nowhere have I said I'm against smoking weed so your U2 & Bono comment is also fucking stupid. Just further proof you don't get what I'm saying.
Mitchejw: Phelps has been charged with a DUI so though it's not a given there is a chance he since he obnvioulsy smokes dope that he has driven high. This is the type fo thinsg he open himself up to. I'm just saying I think the guy is a dumbass for allowing himself to be scrutinized over something that really isn't that important. It's not the act of smoking weed that I think is dumb it's the manner in which he did it. "Hey world I'm Michael Phelps, I'm getting high , smoking dope is great look at me. Yippeee!!!!"
