I woke up this morning to see headlines about how Michael Phelps was in danger of loing his multimillion dollar sponsorships because a photo of him taking a bonghit had surfaced.
Can we end this moronic war on marijuana? Last night I spent hours absorbing a mind altering substance while bathing in corporate marketing messages during the Super Bowl. That mind altering substance was alcohol. Some of these marketing messages were even advocating the use of mind a mind altering substance—alcohol.
Now the same corporations may drop Phelps because he got caught on tape sucking down a bowl. Please. The hypocrisy.
Yes, people can abuse Marijuana. But the health effects of imbibing pot are a joke compared to the results of drinking booze. And the criminal activity that goes along with pot prohibition is a blight on us. In today’s New York Times, an official is quoted talking about the violence associated with organized crime around the cannabis trade:
“The killing will stop when somebody dominates. When somebody takes control.”
Wrong: The killing will stop when we remove the prohibition of cannabis. Just as gangland violence surged during alcohol prohibition, it predictably surges with cannabis prohibition.
There’s nothing wrong with Phelps taking a bonghit at a party every now and then. This country needs to get over it’s counterproductive prohibition of cannabis. So here’s to Michael Phelps. You did what millions of other jocks, accountants, schoolteachers, and doctors do on regular basis. You hung out with friends and got stoned. Nothing to see here. Can we just move along? Can we get past our ridiculous prohibition of cannabis?
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7 responses so far ↓
Dave Alpert // Feb 2, 2009 at 7:14 pm
True dat! But, I don’t say “here’s to Michael Phelps.” I say: stop apologizing because you’re all afraid to lose your damn money. And, in this day and age, will he really lose a frigging speedo sponsorship? We just decriminalized pot here in MA like many other states. Where is this mythical land where peoople really care. But he and other stars that get caught can really help by not apologizing!
Darren Foster // Feb 3, 2009 at 6:56 am
I think the real questions and answers raised delve far deeper than an “OH Gosh isnt that awful” reaction. Lets start with a conservitive veiw.
Here you have the greatest swimmer ever and he is pulling down a bong. Ok no biggy except for this! Phelpsy trains like most stoners pull bongs and its likley that he pulls bongs about as often as your average stoner trains. The problem is that your aveage stoner is not going to see this and will use the fact that Phelpsy likes to party as a qualifier for their own lifestyle. Even though his lifestyle is in no way representitive of their own. Thus your conservitive is going to say that Phelpsy is enabling the habits of others and therefore he should be penalised.
The Liberal view.
Strangely the Liberals are going to have a similar veiw to the Conservitives with the disclaimer of “as long as he is not hurting anyone else let him do what he wants to do.” However one of the things that the Liberals are very good at is using Conservative Values to pull down those they feel have gotten bigger than themselves. Liberals tend to have a horrible tall poppy syndrome.
But now we are getting down to the real culprits.
Mass Media and the Sponsors.
If you take the Mass Media out of the equation then neither the Conservitives nor the Liberals could give a damn what anyone does, because lets face it, they wouldnt know . So the Media are the real Villans because they have shamlessly promoted wat he is up to, simply to make money. The real dissapointment here is that it is the very public who are saying “Leave the guy alone he’s just having fun”, that enables these companys to make money in this way.
The Sponsors on the other hand well they are probably just pissed that they had to pay Millions to get him to promote their goods and here he is becoming the poster boy for legalize It for free. They would probably have the same reaction if he appeared on worldwide news wearing someone elses swimmers!
missbhavens // Feb 3, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Agreed. It’s just goofy really, what with cigarettes and alcohol being completely legal and all. Role model? Gateway drug? What about the children? I really don’t want to hear it.
A guy who trains as hard as Phelps doesn’t likely spend all day toking up. And so what if he does?
He needs to stop apologizing and just say “yeah. I get weedy sometimes. Doesn’t hurt my game. Doesn’t help, either. It’s just Saturday night, dude.”
iconjohn // Feb 5, 2009 at 7:09 am
I was a stoner like Jeff Spicoli ala Fast Timesat Ridgemont High. Quit the reefer when I started college and never looked back . Phelps will move on too, and besides the Carolina police aint got nothing on him but a photoshop internet picture. No smoking bong as evidence.
iconjohn // Feb 5, 2009 at 7:12 am
Darren, IMHO Johnny Wiessmuller was the greatest swimmer ever. Phelps will never be a Tarzan!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Weissmuller
jonny goldstein // Feb 5, 2009 at 11:45 am
I am impressed at how much folks comments favor decriminalization on various websites that mention the Phelps incident. Maybe there is hope…
David Miller // Feb 21, 2009 at 4:13 pm
I think if you sold decriminalization as a means to raise tax revenue, progress would be made with many prohibitionists. The tax revenue would be huge. Times are getting like the last time prohibition was partly abolished. It all seems like a big waste of money to more and more people: the arrests, prisons and the huge permanently lowered class of people as felons.
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