Many news outlets are running a story this morning that Olympic Great and winner of 16 medals last summer Michael Phelps apparently has admitted that a photo of him smoking pot is authentic.
From the BBC:
“Mr Phelps, 23, who won eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics last year, was pictured by the News of the World inhaling from a glass pipe.
The picture was taken in November at a party in the University of South Carolina, the newspaper said.
Mr Phelps apologised to fans and said the incident would not be repeated.
In a statement sent to the Associated Press news agency, the swimmer acknowledged the photo was authentic. “
To which I say, *who the hell cares!* Surely had this man been enjoying a martini instead of a bong nobody would have given a rats ass. And yet marijuana is no more harmful to your body than cigarettes and alcohol. The “war on drugs,” complete with the propaganda that Michael Phelps in this case somehow did something wrong is idiotic. At present we are spending way too much money prosecuting and incarcerating people for crimes associated with marijuana when smoking pot and getting high really is no different than downing a six pack or if you’re rich, a nice bottle of cabernet sauvignon.
The criminalization of marijuana has gone on too long. It has taken a huge toll on society enforcing it and ensuring that most of the money associated with the trade goes directly to organized crime and gangsters on the streets rather than a more sensible approach where it is sold through liquor stores and taxed like other arguably less than healthy things in our society (alcohol, tobacco gasoline, etc.).
It was the Great Depression and the need for tax revenues that finally got the United States to end the prohibition on alcohol. Maybe this most recent downturn and a need for tax revenue will finally convince people that marijuana ought to be legal as well. Those that argue against the legalization of marijuana most of the time have never even tried it. People make outlandish claims about how it zaps all your ambition and prevents you from achieving anything in life. But in actuality there are many people who use it regularly and are perfectly successful and do just fine with it. Just like there are people who alcohol ravages and people who can consume alcohol socially just fine.
Our President has admitted to smoking pot (and inhaling and enjoying it), millions of Americans smoke pot regularly every year, heck one of our popular TV shows now is basically all about pot, and now we have an Olympic hero who has imbibed. It’s time for the stigma associated with marijuana to go away. If people want to smoke pot there ain’t nothing wrong with that. Smoking pot won’t kill you. It’s time for the country to legalize it.
