In the same way that too many Cheetos are harmful. As far as recreational drugs go, pot is as benign as you’re evr going to find. Hell, aspirin is more dangerous than pot.
Who cares what you find redeeming value for? What’s the redeeming value of pork rinds?
I don’t, actually. At least not anymore. I gave it up when I became a parent.
What do children have to do with anything?
Smoking pot IS ok for grown adults. In my opinion, it’s a lie to tell children otherwise. having said that, no teenager ever decided to smoke or not smoke pot because of what an Olympic swimmer did.
Not even all of them. My late Uncle Ed, a really wonderful guy, would have turned 87 last Friday. Way back when I was interested he showed me how to cultivate the evil weed.
I’m just sorry Michael had to apologize for it.
I know you’re joking, but if anyone seriously made that argument, we’d have to immediately legalize pot, because apparently it makes you go out and become an olympic champion.
I look forward to the future day – apparently, the distant future day – when most of us have come to our senses and are looking back at the current present and thinking, “What the drooling fuck were we thinking?”
Personally, I can’t stand pot. I hate how it smells, I hate how it makes me feel, and I don’t very much like being around people when they’re high off it.
But if Phelps wants to smoke up every weekday and twice on Sundays, more power to him.
I wish he’d have gone a step beyond “So?” and just told anyone up-in-arms over this nonsense to fuck off and leave him alone.
Phelp’s crime wasn’t smoking weed, his crime was that he got caught smoking weed. What’s the difference? Well he’s an Olympic athlete who is supposed to represent the best of our country to the rest of the world. He is rightly held to a higher standard because of his visibility. There are many children who look up to him (and rightfully so) and view him as a hero of sorts because of his accomplishments.
Now, I have smoked weed in the past, but do not currently do so. I have 5 nieces and nephews. I would never, ever, smoke around them, or do anything to make them believe I did smoke. I’m not a parent, but I believe I have a responsibility to them, and I have to try to provide an example for these kids to look to. Once they hit adulthood, they’re responsible for making their own decisions. But I don’t think kids should smoke weed, and until they’re adults, I’d tell them I think they should stay away from it. Would it be the worst thing in the world if I found out one of them was doing it? No, but I’d hate for one of them to get caught with it and say “Uncle apocalypso does it, so it must be ok”. Same thing if they got caught with booze, or cigarettes.
Now take the above and apply it x1000 to Phelps. He’s a role model and a hero to thousands, if not millions, of kids, and I think he showed very poor judgement, not in smoking the weed, but putting himself in a position to get caught doing it. I know he’s in the public eye and probably has very little privacy, but come on, you can’t find anywhere to smoke in private? Lock yourself in a bathroom for Og’s sake!
I don’t understand this “Think of the children; set a good example” mentality; at least, not when coupled with “There’s nothing intrinsically morally wrong with an adult enjoying pot”. We’re all supposed to engage in a mass charade to prevent children from seeing behavior which is not objectionable except to the extent that children might see it?
I mean, I don’t believe young children should be driving cars, but, naturally, I’m fine with kids being exposed to images of adults driving cars, even adults they look up to. Why is the situation so different with weed?
I don’t doubt that many in the broad public care what Mr Phelps personally does. Some do, and folks who pay for endorsements want to cater to as broad an audience as possible.
He owes no one an apology.
He is being paid a large some of money to be a spokesman for various things, and the ones who are paying that money get to decide what they prefer for a spokesman.
It’s that simple.
Don’t care about the money? Take a walk and enjoy your bong.
Care about the money? Suck it up and maintain the image that you are selling.
Recreational outrage over Phelps’s apology or over someone else’s outrage over marijuana might be an amusing way to pass the time, but it misses the issue entirely. Mr Phelps has sold something–an image. If he changes his product, there’s no guarantee he gets to continue to sell it.
And, actually, Phelps can smoke all the pot he wants when he is not competing as far as the IOC, USIOC, and any other athletic body you’d care to name is concerned. He only gets tested during competition season, and they only punish for failing drug tests.
He’s apologizing because his public pot smoking probably breaks the morals clauses in his endorsement deals. Really, his apology should have been:
“I’m sorry for being such a poor role model to the millions of hypothetical children which the Internet will be in an uproar about, for smoking pot… and getting caught in public”.
Because, had he been doing this in private, in his off-season, no one would have had any cause for complaint.
…or if he used a vaporizer? All the THC but none of the carbon monoxide, tars or carcinogens.
I don’t smoke pot, never have…or drink. But I can hardly wait until this country gets over this insanity. It should be legal. But I suspect it will have to wait for Obama’s second term.
Was he caught in public? Or was someone playing paparazzi at a private residence?
He’s 23 and spent most of his life swimming. Socially, he’s probably still a teenager. And, he’s an athlete, not running for public office. He’s not really supposed to represent anything, other than what he does, which is swim better than everyone else in the world.
I’d expect a young guy like him, with his success, to blow off some steam and relax with his friends. Smoking some happy weed is no different than having a beer or two.
I remember hearing about the Canadian gold medalist in snowboarding testing positive for marijuana, and immediately turning to the person I was with and saying “well, no fucking shit!” I dated several guys who moved to CO to try to become professional snowboarders, and those guys were high probably 20/7 (the four hour gap being when they were asleep). And most of them were pretty nice guys, didn’t drive (the ski bum thing meant they took the Summit Stage everywhere), didn’t beat anybody up, etc…
I actually had the same response to this - no fucking shit. He’s a young American male, famous, with tons of money, partying his ass off with a substance that is relatively harmless. It’s really sad that the fear of losing his endorsements pressured him to forgo the raised middle finger and the “yea, so fucking what?” response.
I do not care. I do not smoke but if it floats your boat have at it. There may be bigger problems in this world. It apparently did not hurt his swimming too much.
