After Failure of Judgment, Phelps Shouldn’t Get a Pass
Michael Phelps, of his own free will, decided to trade on his image to the tune of $100 million or so, an image that surely doesn’t include drunk driving and getting high. This isn’t fine print; it’s in big block letters: DON’T SCREW UP! This is what Phelps agreed to, implicitly, when he signed on with AT&T, Visa, Hilton Hotels, Kellogg’s, Rosetta Stone, Speedo and Nestle, among others: to conduct himself without scandal . . . all the time.
It doesn’t matter that “everybody else is doing it,” because my bet is that everybody else smoking pot at that student party at the University of South Carolina doesn’t have endorsement deals worth $100 million.
But there are also some who say the hubbub surrounding this, including the possibility of his being prosecuted, points out the stupidity and hypocrisy of the never-ending ‘War on Drugs.’ Is Phelps even a hero for all this?
Michael Phelps, Hypocrisy, and American Drug Policy
While marijuana laws have changed over time, and while past administrations have attempted to show that the situation isn’t as dire as it appears to be, drug policy in the United States is immensely hypocritical and destructive. Today, public figures justify past drug use as “youthful indiscretions” and the matter is dropped. But huge numbers of ordinary Americans are introduced to the jail system because of minor drug offenses, and as the records show, the overwhelmingly disproportionate nature of drug arrests creates a justified perception of injustice and both economic and racial bias.
A somewhat related side note to the War on Drugs issue is an interesting discussion I heard over the weekend about the war in Afghanistan. To win we need to help their economy, but since the majority of it involves growing poppies, we can’t really stop that. Guess that means we patriotic Americans should all take up shooting heroin to help win the war!
I say again, who cares? Whether or not he smokes weed won’t affect my decision to buy or not buy any product he endorses. It doesn’t detract from my admiration for the guy’s achievements. It’s his personal life.
As to gov’t interference- I’ll leave the hand-wringing to others. I happen to think the drug laws in this country are stupid, but getting lathered up about them here isn’t going to change anything (except maybe my blood pressure).
Michael Phelps just signed a new deal to appear on the box of “Weedies” cereal.
Maybe he just likes taking a couple hits at a party. Some people make it sound like he’s a total burned-out stoner. It is kinda dumb to be photographed doing it, but with everybody carrying cel phones with cameras, what do you expect?
Leave the doofus alone. Top athlete with the brains of an amoeba.
I’m saddened to see such a young, athletic celebrity whom most likely has a heart of gold be taken down like this by the “gotcha” scumbags out there.
I support him. If anything, we should revisit the drunk driving, coke snarfing, draft dodging former president Bush who took this country into the abyss and who now lives high on the hog on a taxpayer pension.
# 40 Dallas said, “If anything, we should revisit the drunk driving, coke snarfing, draft dodging former president”
Why? We have a new coke snarfing, military service shunning President who is forwarding the failed economic policies of the last Admin, to newly visit.
LOL
#36- my point exactly.
Do your drugs, Phelps, nobody (except your corporate $ponsor$) gives a shit.
Just keep your phucking HYPOCRITE face off products that represents what a HERO your sponsors want kids to respect and emulate…and BUY their products.
“Be Like Mike! Do Drugs! They’re harmless fun like alcohol, crack and cigarettes!!!”
44,
If he promoted drug use, that would be a valid comment.
# 45 smartalix said, “If he promoted drug use, that would be a valid comment.”
promote: to contribute to the growth or prosperity of
Oops. I think his action may qualify.
#27,
Yeah, it’s all fun & games until Mothers Against Drunk Drivers scrape their children off the road.
That’s why he has DAMM to fight for him — Drunks Against Mad Mothers.
We ARE winning the war on drugs.
1. The prison-industrial complex has been and will continue to be a growth sector of the economy.
2. Timothy McVeigh (the Oklahoma City bomber) was completely drug free.
3. The 9/11 hijackers were all completely drug free.
4. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was and is drug free.
5. Michael Phelps who has won more gold medals than any other Olympian smoked a bit of pot and is about to be torn to shreds by the media wolf pack.
We are WINNING the war on drugs.
The only people that should give a rats ass about this are his sponsors.
#25, Stephanie,
I wish they would leave my olympic boy crush alone. 😉 Who hasn’t smoked some weed!?!
Well, my wife claims she hasn’t. But, her daddy was a pastor and all that other bullcrap.
#41, Cow-Patty,
Why? We have a new coke snarfing, military service shunning President who is forwarding the failed economic policies of the last Admin, to newly visit.
You have previously claimed he is a “coke head” You still haven’t backed that up.
No wonder so many people call you a troll.
Thats what happens when you hang with the Snowboarding team.
Hey Y’All!
I’m chillin’ here with Phelps, my brother Roger and my pals Eric Holder and Timothy Geithner and I do solemnly swear that we did NOT inhale.
Man I can’t wait for my trips abroad with sHrillary!
Peace in Our Time y’all,
WJC
I love it when athletes fall, makes ’em seem human. Don’t really care about the smoking, but I’m from Holland and smoking pot is about as normal as drinking a beer around here….
Prohibition does not work- have we learned nothing from history?
Sending a drug addict to jail hoping to correct their behavior makes as much/little sense as sending an alcoholic to jail thinking he will be released fully recovered based on time served.
This is why we continue to waste tax payer money on fighting the war rather than treating the addicted:
http://leap.cc/cms/index.php?name=Web_Links&l_op=visit&lid=180
AFTER I got Kosher with enough endorsers to cover my ass, it would be cool if Phelps and a few other high profile folks stopped apologizing for being free people and simply told “the system” to f&ck off and mind there own business.
A new age in civil rights needs to dawn.
I’ve caught the tail end of Obama talking about disproportionate drug sentences affecting black people. He surely sees the idiocy of America’s inept/self hurting drug policies.
I’d like to see Obama pardon all simple drug possession sentences and introduce bills into Congress to LEGALIZE ALL DRUGS and deal with the consequences as they “may” develop.
Less harm to society and individuals than what we have now.
Then in addition to MADD, we’d also need a Mothers Against Zonked-out Drivers. Or maybe a Mothers Against Hey WTF There Is No Way To Test For Stoned Drivers (MAHWTFTINWTTFSD).
More carnage for the sake of somebody’s little feel good. (Legitimized, naturally it would be elevated to be more like wine-tasting: “Ahhh, yes. Hints of papaya, black current…(Phewwwooooocth!)…uh, benzopyrene, anyone getting benzopyrene?)
If all we need to do is change the law to suddenly turn undesirable behavior into something righteous and civilized – too easy – let’s do that for torturing terrorists. And stifling free speech.
Or is the rule simply that we just need enough people illegally torturing and stifling before we can proclaim a new law sanctifying the unacceptable, as acceptable? Well then, a nod is as good as a wink.
Civilized principles indeed. The only principles I see at play here are expediency and hypocrisy. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course…
RBG
#51 RBG Although I can’t site references, to the best of my knowledge all of the people I mentioned were “illegal drug” free when they committed their heinous acts.
Percentages vary according to what organization performed the survey, but a significant minority of people including the current and probably the last two US presidents have tried marijauna. The problem as I see it is that one can not have a rational discussion (other than on Cage Match) about current US drug policy because for many of the participants emotions get in the way of facts. I share the grief of everyone that has lost a family member to drug addiction and also to those whose relatives were law enforcment officers injured or killed while enforcing current drug laws. And yes, all laws should be obeyed and in a perfect world no citizen has the right to decide which laws are valid.
BUT- When citizens decide to vote on the issue, the nanny state decides that it knows best
http://tinyurl.com/dn6o7b
The state’s resources, especially in these troubled times, are better used for health care or infrastructure improvement rather than clogging the justice system with minor recreational drug offenders. And if stoners aren’t contributing to society then so be it. Decriminalizing some drugs would go very far in removing the profit motive from criminals, and resources could be redeployed to treat drug addiction as a medical problem rather than a criminal one. The same safeguards that are in place now to prevent drug use by pilots, nuclear plant operators and FBI agents would remain effective. We allow the sale of alchohol, tobacco and firearms and do a pretty good job of not selling these things to children so protecting children is another false argument,
We need to face the fact that current American drug policy has failed. We can then redirect our efforts and energies to solving the more serious issues that confront us.
I’m just sayin’
Tony the Tiger just dumped him…
61 John E. Quantum
Well, read some of my cited site references and the best of your knowledge will become even better.
But don’t get all serious on me else I’ll have to point out that all of your anecdotally contrived people are obviously irrelevant to winning any war on drugs.
Now you know why The People are usually not allowed to vote directly on such things as abortion and immigration. That said, your example is working its way through the legal channels as it should when two sides feel the law of the land is on their side.
The biggest joke about decriminalization of marijuana and other drugs, of course, is that this will cause all the drug dealers to – what? – go away and open barber shops or something. Ha! Try: they will merely and easily move into other illegal drugs to lure the stupid. The more drugs are legalized, the more they will be simply forced to find a faster, more addicting, bigger, more dangerous high. Man, let the criminals work with mj. Especially if children are to be their customers. No false argument there.
The alcohol-induced carnage on our streets is plenty enough already. We do not need still more fuzzy-headed people guiding quarter ton missiles near our families.
And please don’t talk of the need for redirected efforts and wasted energies in the face of a potential nation of hopped-up people and the resulting problems.
American drug policies have failed as speeding tickets have failed. We still speed, maybe just not as much.
RBG
#63–RGB==I haven’t ever before exactly focused on the illegal drug gangs pimping more dangerous drugs if MJ became legal. Seems to me that really is a further justification for legalizing all drugs==which has long been my position, I just didn’t know how right I was. REPHRASING THE NOTION: one reason legalized drugs will ultimately result in a lower amount of drug addiction is that there won’t be a sub class of people MOTIVATED to get others hooked, as is the case today.
Legalize drugs and we face: “a potential nation of hopped-up people and the resulting problems.” /// Hhahahah==boogeyman/chicken little/straw man at its best. “The whole world” only does one thing consistently –eat and die.
bobbo. Besides eat & die, there will always be a subclass of people MOTIVATED to make a profit. If they can’t get the drugs you want, then they will create their own exclusive designer drugs – (ie: only they will have them) more horrifying than anything you can imagine, that will addict with one hit. They will always be able to stay one concoction ahead of what anyone would ban. Because as it turns out, profit is even more addictive than drugs.
Aaah, but what do you care, as long as you can get your little unmolested high? C’mon now bobbo, suck in in, baby. Big one for daddy now… (Okay, uncalled for. Funny though. True, maybe?)
“Dutch professionals working with the abusers of “soft” drugs have found that young people, especially those lighting up with the high THC cannabis, may become chronically passive, spending days smoking joint after joint, unable to find direction in their lives.”
http://tinyurl.com/bc85e2
Nah, I couldn’t see that ever happening.
Holland was largely free of international drug-trafficking criminals when it began innocently trying to decriminalize personal-use pot. Now it is the illegal drug capitol of Europe producing frightening designer drugs fought with what I would call Dutch storm-troopers. Even pot has evolved to being anything but a soft drug.
Dutch drug policy & law is an unholy dog’s breakfast: double-faced & constantly changing as it takes hit after unexpected hit by an out-of-control underground drug industry. I say we at least wait and see how that little experiment turns out before we decide to open our own Pandora’s box.
RBG
#41 – Paddy-RAMBO
>>Why? We have a new coke snarfing, military
>>service shunning President who is forwarding
>>the failed economic policies of the last
>>Admin, to newly visit.
Don’t you need to replace the batteries on the remote-controlled toy cars, or something?
That’s just about the stupidest post you have ever made, and you’ve made some pretty fucking stupid posts.
“coke snarfing”?? “military service shunning”? a forwarder of failed economic policies??
Christ almighty, boy. You have to stop jerking off to Michelle Malkin blog photos, get your head out of your ass, and start paying attention to current events.
Don’t they ask questions about stuff like this on the GED test? You want to be prepared.
#25 – Steph
>>I wish they would leave my olympic
>>boy crush alone. Who hasn’t smoked
>>some weed!?
Yuk! Boy crush??I don’t care if he wants to fire up the occasional doobie, but that kid is a MUTANT. He looks like one of his not-too-distant ancestors may have been a reptile.
#66 Interesting, that while you don’t like the allegations, you attack the messenger (typical tactic of those trying to misdirect) you can’t address the items one by one as they are all true.
LOL