Photo & article here

I don't really care if MP wants to light up in private, but allowing himself to be photographed doing it is a pretty dumb move.

True. It's not like anyone in the swimming world didn't know that he smoked weed anyways. It's too bad that the kids that looked up to him had to find out.

Agreed.

Dear America,

I take it back. I don’t apologize.

Because you know what? It’s none of your *******ed business. I work my ass off 10 months a year. It’s that hard work that gave you all those gooey feelings of patriotism last summer. If during my brief window of down time I want to relax, enjoy myself, and partake of a substance that’s a hell of a lot less bad for me than alcohol, tobacco, or, frankly, most of the prescription drugs most of you are taking, well, you can spare me the lecture.

I put myself through hell. I make my body do things nature never really intended us to endure. All world-class athletes do. We do it because you love to watch us push ourselves as far as we can possibly go. Some of us get hurt. Sometimes permanently. You’re watching the Super Bowl tonight. You’re watching 300 pound men smash each while running at full speed, in full pads. You know what the average life expectancy of an NFL player is? Fifty-five. That’s about 20 years shorter than your average non-NFL player. Yet you watch. And cheer. And you jump up spill your beer when a linebacker lays out a wide receiver on a crossing route across the middle. The harder he gets hit, the louder and more enthusiastically you scream.

Yet you all get bent out of shape when Ricky Williams, or I, or Josh Howard smoke a little dope to relax. Why? Because the idiots you’ve elected to make your laws have, without a shred of evidence, beat it into your head that smoking marijuana is something akin to drinking antifreeze, and done only by dirty hippies and sex offenders.

You’ll have to pardon my cynicism. But I call bull****. You don’t give a damn about my health. You just get a voyeuristic thrill from watching an elite athlete fall from grace–all the better if you get to exercise a little moral righteousness in the process. And it’s hypocritical righteousness at that, given that 40 percent of you have tried pot at least once in your lives.

Here’s a crazy thought: If I can smoke a little dope and go on to win 14 Olympic gold medals, maybe pot smokers aren’t doomed to lives of couch surfing and video games, as our moronic government would have us believe. In fact, the list of successful pot smokers includes not just world class athletes like me, Howard, Williams, and others, it includes Nobel Prize winners, Pulitzer Prize winners, the last three U.S. presidents, several Supreme Court justices, and luminaries and success stories from all sectors of business and the arts, sciences, and humanities.

So go ahead. Ban me from the next Olympics. Yank my endorsement deals. Stick your collective noses in the air and get all indignant on me. While you’re at it, keep arresting cancer and AIDS patients who dare to smoke the stuff because it deadens their pain, or enables them to eat. Keep sending in goon squads to kick down doors and shoot little old ladies, maim innocent toddlers, handcuff elderly post-polio patients to their beds at gunpoint, and slaughter the family pet.

Tell you what. I’ll make you a deal. I’ll apologize for smoking pot when every politician who ever did drugs and then voted to uphold or strengthen the drug laws marches his ass off to the nearest federal prison to serve out the sentence he wants to impose on everyone else for committing the same crimes he committed. I’ll apologize when the sons, daughters, and nephews of powerful politicians who get caught possessing or dealing drugs in the frat house or prep school get the same treatment as the no-name, probably black kid caught on the corner or the front stoop doing the same thing.

Until then, I for one will have none of it. I smoked pot. I liked it. I’ll probably do it again. I refuse to apologize for it, because by apologizing I help perpetuate this stupid lie, this idea that what someone puts into his own body on his own time is any of the government’s damned business. Or any of yours. I’m not going to bend over and allow myself to be propaganda for this wasteful, ridiculous, immoral war.

Go ahead and tear me down if you like. But let’s see you rationalize in your next lame ONDCP commercial how the greatest mother****ing swimmer the world has ever seen...is also a proud pot smoker.

Yours,

Michael Phelps

You forget one thing, it is against the law.

Coprolite sounds like a bitter stoner to me. I agree with goblu. Maybe Phelpsy needs to do another community service tour like he did after Athens/DUI

Speeding is against the law too, you ever do that?

So swimmers are exempt from drug tests?

One possible positive result of this incident, is that it may highlight the ongoing discussion of either legalizing pot, or at least lessening the sanctions for possession of small amounts. Most folks in law enforcement take no joy in finding a roach in an ashtray and trying to figure out who to arrest. The problem now is as Huskerdad says, its against the law, and the law is making criminals out of a huge portion of our society who say they don't care what the law is they are going to smoke when they want to. Certainly does very little for respect for the law. I wonder how much revenue is lost because we don't regulate and tax marijuana, like we do cigarrettes and alcohol. Doubt if we could even come close to quantifying that, but its got to be a lot of money. Oh well, in the grand scheme of things, Michael smoking in South Carolina will be a small footnote in history.

A guy from Colorado speaking out in favor of potheads. Shocker.

It may be less bad for you then the other things you mention, but it's still bad for you, and I bet you still wouldn't want your 8 year-old kid to look up to that kind of guy.

Furthermore, do a google news search for "killed in drug violence" every morning when you wake up. Keep a running tally. I'll start you off with today's headline: 13. And that's below average for just the number of Mexicans that are known to be killed daily by drug cartels. Excludes any Americans. Do that for a couple of days and see if you still think "it's not hurting anyone, so what's the difference?"

Point is, it's something that's more bad for you than it is good for you. As a sponsor or a concerned parent, you wouldn't want him to be photographed getting sloppy drunk at a night club either. Every american swimmer under the age of 13 wants to be Michael Phelps, and most of the parents can't name any other swimmers. And that's what sponsors are paying for. That image of goodness and wholesomeness and awesomeness. Therefore, it is significant that he did something which is #1. illegal and #2. unhealthy. Sorry, Charlie.

Potheads.

[This message has been edited by gobluwolverine (edited 2/3/2009 7:32a).]

Unfortunately, it comes down to image and being held to a higher standard. Smoking pot isn't a positive thing, no matter how you spin it, but it's not uncommon in any sport, including swimming. As a lifelong swimmer, I've always liked Phelps because he reminds me of everyone I grew up swimming with and has that combo of being laid-back but focused that so many swimmers do. I guess that he is even more like your college age guy than most realized. We were all kinda joking about the situation at masters practice with a group of old swimmers from all over including USC and Michigan. But I realize that it his public persona really makes it a bigger issue.

Do many collegiate-age swimmers smoke in the offseason? Absolutely.

Do some of his fellow Olympic swimmers smoke in the offseason? You bet.

Does it make it okay? No way.

I agree that this will likely become a footnote in history, but it was dumb. I hate to see the negative press, and I earnestly hope he doesn't receive a 4 year ban.

As an aside, it reminds me of a situation a few years back where a guy was cut from the team the week before NC's his senior year for excessive positive tests. I don't know any details, but the guy apparently just never learned. I hope Phelps is smarter than that.

Phelps is not the most brilliant athlete out there. He is just average in the brain department.

He faces no bans from swimming. First he has not failed any drug tests. He is not subject to tests out of competition - so unless he fails a drug test coming up there is no true harm to his swimming career.

He has introduced doubt in the minds of many of his sponsors. Probably not Speedo - who pays him to be fast and promote swim suits. But his other sponsors care far more about Phelps' position as an Olympic champion (etc.). They hope Phelps brings a good image to their product, whatever it is.

I agree with H2O that many swimmers (at least in my history with the sport) are at least occasional pot smokers (and drinkers).

Phelps was just plain stupid to do this and get caught. One more strike and he will lose $millions$. He has to remember that he is a VERY public figure. One of the 2 or 3 swimmers in the world who everyone knows their face. Cameras are everywhere.

Coprolite

You couldn't have said it any better. Weed has GOT to be as bad as all the "Above the Influence" commercials say it is! Everyone who smokes weed will kill someone, everyone who smokes weed will go into a pasture to get kicked by a cow because that's as fun as smoking weed.

It just goes to show that people who smoke weed amount to and go on to do nothing in life.

If we held everyone to the same policy we're holding Phelps to, ending his olympic career, then we sure as hell better kick barack out of office because this guy has openly stated that he has used BOTH weed and cocaine on a regular basis. One of the current rising stars in Hollywood, Seth Rogan, is a stoner but is currently the poster-boy for the newest blockbuster comedy films. And while we're at it, lets just completely disband the music industry because god knows 80% of them do drugs.

Get a life people. Weed can't be that bad for you if someone can smoke it and go on to be one of the best olympic athletes of ALL TIME.

Something I always love hearing people try to explain is why alcohol is legal over weed. Really why? I'm still in college so i'm going to use Northgate as an example. I was pumping gas at the NG gas station the other night and looked around and saw 4 people getting arrested by 8 cops. The drunk people are the ones yelling, causing a scene, starting fights, making bad decisions when it comes to women or men, and they are the ones that wake up in the morning throwing up and feel like utter **** in the morning.

Now let's look at a "stoner." Smokes his bong and sits down on a couch and watches TV/listens to music/plays video games/eats every cookie, potato chip, poptart, etc. in sight/loves everyone/and becomes too paranoid to even change the channel on the TV. They cause so much trouble.

Think about this as well. How many movies/stories have you seen or heard where a family is torn apart by alcohol or hard drugs (coke, crack, etc.)? "My daddy was a drunk and beat my mother and I silly everyday"; "My mom was a coke head and would leave me and my siblings at home all day to fend for ourselves."
The fact is that those drugs, and yes, alcohol is a drug, screw up the body/mind WAY more than weed does.

Did you know that for someone to overdose on weed, they would have to smoke 3/4 of their body weight? For those of you who don't understand that, let me explain. I weight 190lbs. I would have to smoke 142lbs worth of weed to begin to get close to an overdose. Do you want to know how much weed it takes you to get "blazed?" 1 gram. Usually after 2 grams, a person will become so tired that they will just pass out and wake up the next morning feeling like a million bucks. So from now on, i never want to hear from anyone that weed is bad for you. My lord, it takes people 12 drinks of alcohol to start becoming in danger of getting alcohol poisoning and dying.

I'm sick and tired of everyone giving weed a bad rap. The only reason that we have propaganda against weed telling everyone it is equal to the powers of satan is because the government has NO WAY OF REGULATING AND TAXING!!! THAT'S IT!

So everyone shut up, let phelps smoke his weed, and start becoming active in teaching people the dangers of the other drugs that society has come to tell us are "fun" and "cool" --> alcohol and tobacco.

Let your kids know that those are way more dangerous that weed ever has been and ever will be.

So i just read all the other posts on the thread and I am truly amazed. "Now matter how you spin it, smoking is still a bad thing." "I don't want my kids looking up to someone who does that."

and my favorite,

quote:

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Point is, it's something that's more bad for you than it is good for you.

---

Cigarettes and alcohol. This is what society tells our young people about these two drugs:

"Cigarettes and alcohol are bad for you. Cigarettes will destroy your lungs, give you cancer and make you DIE. Buuuuutttt, they're fun to have after sex, they make you look cool, they take the edge off and really aren't all that bad every once in a while. so if you want to smoke try a cigarette once, go on ahead. I mean, once you hit 18, you can do whatever you want with them, even though they WILL GIVE YOU CANCER.
Alcohol - does anyone like to hang out with lots and lots of friends/strangers and stumble around rooms, yelling, slurring words and doing things you wouldn't normally do? Well then have a drink of this stuff!! You will be viewed as the coolest kid in college if you can slam back 15 beers in one night and then when you wake up in the morning, you'll be throwing up and have a monster head ache and be worthless for an entire day! IT'S SO MUCH FUN!!!"

Now weed, that is a different story kids. It's terrible for you. You smoke it and instantly you feel amazing. Music sounds better, stupid movies seem to be the best movies ever, food tastes better, everything seems more interesting, you can't get addicted to it and it's not nearly as bad for you as the other legal drugs. SO YOU HAD BETTER STAY AWAY FROM IT AND SHUN ANYONE WHO HAS EVER SMOKED POT!

It just makes so much sense doesn't it?

quote:

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Furthermore, do a google news search for "killed in drug violence" every morning when you wake up. Keep a running tally. I'll start you off with today's headline: 13. And that's below average for just the number of Mexicans that are known to be killed daily by drug cartels.

---

you do realize that if it were to be made legal then this would all be cut out, almost completely, right?

some of yall are such tight assed conservatives that you can't see weed is not the end all drug. in fact, it's not even technically drug anyway.

Prostitution should be legalized also. If they are clean they don't hurt antone. Nobody dies from it except maybe heart attacks here and there. I guess it could be addicting.

quote:

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If they are clean they don't hurt antone.

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Who is Antone and why are dirty hos trying to hurt him?

Flea - stop arguing. I agree with you, and I bet some others here do too. However, it doesn't change the fact that this situation is a negative thing for Phelps. When I said that smoking pot was bad, I'm not saying it's worse than drinking or anything else. However, there is no question that for his health and public perception, smoking pot is bad for Phelps.

You're missing the point a little. This is not a discussion on whether pot should be legalized or whether it is better or worse than booze or tabbacco. It's about how Phelps pulled a dumb PR move that may hurt his reputation and marketability.

Your posts sound like a lite to moderate pot head college student stuck in an ultra conservative small town. Get a little more experience (time and geography) and realize that the world is not against you. If anything, you are more "normal" than you realize and don't need to rant on internet forums of unrelated topics to demonstrate your views.

Thankkkk you PoloAg. No part of my post was every about whether or not weed should be legal or illegal. The fact is that it's currently illegal, and causes many deaths in the drug cartels. Furthermore, even though cigarettes and alcohol are legal, I would hope that you still wouldn't encourage your children to look up to someone who smokes and gets wasted all of the time. Illegal or legal has nothing to do with whether it hurts his image or was a dumb thing for him to do.
And again, as I said, the fact that alcohol and tobacco are worse for you doesn't automatically mean that smoking pot is good for you. My statement that weed is more bad for you than it is good for you is TRUE.
It's worse to get shot in the chest than the foot, but noone wants to get shot in the foot anyways.

If you want to get into a debate over the pro's and cons of stoning, take it to the general board or philosophy board. This thread is about whether or not it was done for Michael Phelps, the most (and possibly only) recognizable athlete in his sport.

Sounds like his sponsors are sticking with him, so I guess it did not hurt him as much as you think it should

That remains to be seen. There is speculation that some of his sponsors will quietly let him fade off. Rosetta Stone already chose not to renew his contract and was very outspoken on the matter.

Rosetta Stone did not renew his contract at the end of 2008, his contract has been up for over a month

I think that the Rosetta Stone news is good for Phelps. Those were the worst comercials ever. I honestly think they did more damage to his marketability than any pictures and stories of him partying. That's not saying anything about his role model image, just his Q rating.