When I first applied for a security clearance, I said that. I also asked if they had anyone else who attended college in southern California in the late 70s & early 80s, who had given them a different answer. To this day, I’m the only one I know who can say openly that I smoked marijuana in my misspent youth (at least in my part of the company).
Also, as soon as I no longer need a security clearance or it’s legalized, I plan to light up and smoke a bowl. It’s very enjoyable.
I know. Gfactor did a Straight Dope report on it a while back. But by comparison, these anti-bong laws are like saying it’s okay to tie your alligator to a fire hydrant as long as you tell everybody it’s a crocodile, even though nobody believes it. But if you let slip that it’s an alligator the police can throw you in jail.
Maybe I’m being pedantic, or just clueless, but at least there is a clear distinction among those. How can you smoke pot without possessing it? Would that really be a defense if a cop caught you with a fattie in your car? “Officer, I’m smoking this joint, not possessing it. You have to let me go.”
It’s kind of like saying that there’s no law against chopping someone’s head off, only laws against homicide. How can you do one without the other?
The absurd part isn’t using or possessing (within reasonable amounts), the absurd part is you couldn’t have legally obtained the marijuana you are legally using and possessing. It’s legal to own and drive a car, but it’s illegal to buy a car. Well, how did you get the car? It’s making something legal then forcing everyone to break the law in order to do what is legal.
In California, it’s legal to buy pot at a dispensary. But guess what’s illegal? Transporting pot to the dispensary where it is sold. How is it supposed to get there? Well, obviously LE knows how it gets there. If they catch you bringing it there, you’re probably screwed.
Last I checked, guys who swim in pools for a living don’t have to take oaths promising to uphold laws of the land.
The Oval Office has been subjected to profounder vices.
If he was caught in the act, they could get him for possessing whatever quantity was in the bowl of the bong, I suppose, but just from a photograph of him doing a bong hit, they have don’t have the physical evidence of possession (they don’t have the pot), so they can’t charge with with it. They can’t specify a quantity or even actually prove it was pot in the bong, or that he knew it was pot in the bong.
He can say now that he got high, but there’s aren’t actually any laws against being high (as long as you’re not driving or anything). When I say “it’s not illegal to get high,” I guess what I should say is that it’s not illegal to BE high. It’s crazy, but it’s just a hole in the statutes, I guess.
It’s completely acceptable for consenting adults to have sex, too, but you wouldn’t want them to do so in front of a child. Intentionally, I mean - tons of parents have been caught out by a toddler wandering in at the wrong time. 
I wouldn’t really want people to smoke pot in front of my daughter either, though I’m not exactly sure why, if I’m honest. However, that’s not what Michael Phelps did. He smoked pot, and people found out about it. That just tells children that some adults smoke pot, which they should know already. No big deal at all.
Here is a thread we did about the federal version of the “don’t say bong” law: Legal Scholars: What makes a piece of smoking apparatus illegal?
Look at it this way, he’s inspiring a new generation of kids to take an interest in carpentry!
Obviously not as bad as tobacco? What’s obvious about that? If if you find a cite that shows that, I dare say it’s not “obvious.”
I really don’t give a damn that he smoked pot. However, like it or not, he’s looked up by lots of youth. These are the same you that some of us parents are trying to encourage not to do any drugs even the safe ones like pot :rolleyes:.
I for one am very disappointed. It was a dumb ass maneuver on his part.
Well, did he sign off to be a paragon and an example to America’s youth? Or did he just want to swim?
Not a one.
Made it from the Disney Concert Hall to the Castro in five once. 
Fuck Kellogg. What a bunch of tight asses. I’m gonna have to switch to Generic cereal. And to think how much of their product I have consumed while stoned… Whata shame.
Just heard on the news that Kellogg’s is dropping their sponsorship of Phelps over the incident. I think the whole thing is silly but hardly surprising. With some smart investing he should be set for life anyway.
Too bad. I was at the store a month or so ago and they had a pallet of Corn Flakes with Phelps on it, on sale. I almost bought one for collector’s value, but figured, “when have I ever done that before?” Wish I’d bought one now. What do you bet the price for one goes up on ebay?
(bolding mine, comment none, irrational moron you)
e: oh wait, that is a comment
Like’s there’s not enough important shit going on in the US, never mind the world, that some 23 year old kid taking a bong-hit needs to be breaking fuckin’ news for most of the MSM. Hell’s bells, you’d think they found him in some back-alley smoking crack off the butt of some hooker he’d just butchered.
I like this one though:
This sort of comment is pretty obnoxious. You don’t know dmatsch’s kid, so don’t pretend you know what she is or isn’t likely to try.
Lemme guess. Amish?
Good luck with that…