Michael Phelps, hypocrisy and American Drug Policy

reply to post by FRIGHTENER


I wouldn't be so sure about that...

Michael Phelps' Sponsors Sticking

The only major sponsor that has dropped him was Kellogs, while other large companies such as Speedo and Omega (watches) have assured him he won't be dropped.

Duude is LOOAAAADDEEDDDDD right this instant, right now, already, as it is, without the need for any more sponsors. He is financially set for the rest of his life with the sponsors pay and the media tour he did. Not to mention, Kellogs didn't even fire him necessarily, they simply aren't renewing his contract which ends shortly. He will continue to get paid, but doesn't even need to.

Bubbled away some stress is all he did... not hundreds of millions of dollars

Michael Phelps wasn't my "American Hero" before... but I can gladly say, now he is

[edit on 6-2-2009 by ImaNutter]

That's good to hear.

To all:

Well, I fully support Phelps, and I agree that what he was caught doing is totally frivolous. It is absolutely NO BIG DEAL.

Why can't this country get it right. There are more SIGNIFICANT things to worry about than pot.

Chasing down a plant is wasted time. This country needs to direct it's energies to chasing down REAL PROBLEMS like criminals, rapists, thieves, murders, and HARD DRUG pushers (Meth, Coke, etc.).

Our government is just WASTING our tax dollars on stupidity!

Double standards is one topic (not illegal, but unethical), but pursuing someone for pot is WASTED TIME AND MONEY.

Legalize it already!!!!!!!!!!

EyesII

I appreciate the armchair 'doctors' in the house here who have 'refuted' the problems with smoking pot. Facts still remain, they have the studies to back up their claims and I've yet to see anyone post studies with data that refute them. Sorry, individual 'personal experience' doesn't count towards the whole of the dangers of the drug. "I didn't die in a car crash, therefore car crashes don't cause death". O rly? El oh el!

Oh look! Another job loss:

Olympic hero Michael Phelps was suspended from competitive swimming for three months on Thursday -- just hours after one of his sponsors announced it would not renew his contract after a photo surfaced of him smoking from a bong.

Earlier Thursday, Kellogg Co. said it will not renew Phelps' advertising contract.

"Michael's most recent behavior is not consistent with the image of Kellogg," company spokeswoman Susanne Norwitz said. "His contract expires at the end of February, and we have made a decision not to extend his contract."

www.cnn.com...

But this is good right? More time teh smoke teh pot...

Or maybe not:

I'm 23 years old, and despite the successes I have had in the pool, I acted in a youthful and inappropriate way, not in a manner that people have come to expect from me," he said. "For this, I am sorry. I promise my fans and the public -- it will not happen again."

NOOOO! The pot smokesman is swearing it off.

[edit on 6-2-2009 by saint4God]

reply to post by ImaNutter

Hey, great link and post Nutter, Star!
Really glad to see that! Maybe Speedo should introduce a swimsuit with the
seven-leaf emblem!
My OTHER favorite site, NORML has an article about this, saying everyone needs to condemn the LAWS prohibiting MJ... NOT Phelps!
I love it!

Excuse me, I'm gonna go crank-up a Black Sabbath tune now; you-know, the one that starts with coughing!

reply to post by saint4God


I certainly understand your point, but it is misguided and if you believe what you are saying, you are incredibly naïve.

Take a moment to absorb what I am saying to you and understand that this is not an attack but instead an attempt to help you understand the fundamental principles of this underlying topic.

Drugs can and do disrupt a family and a persons life, no question, but the real cause isn’t the drug, it’s the person using it. They do not have a sense of control over themselves and cannot observe the “time and place” principle necessary for a contributing member of society. Unfortunately, these people are used as disposable fodder in the ongoing attempt of controlling an individual’s actions and behaviors and receive incredible profits. Given time to honestly explore this subject you would be able to assess that the overwhelming majority of pot smokers live day to day without any negative consequence for their practice.

They go to work, perform their job and go home each night, they kiss their wife, love their kids, eat dinner and after the evening chores are finished, they will sit in their big easy chair and load a pipe full of relaxation. And for these people, there is no harm, to anyone and these are the vast majority of actual users, not the exception. It is a sad statement on our society that this is generally disregarded in these discussions and pot use is placed on the same level as grand theft or even murder in the eyes of the court in some states. Obviously the punishment and crime do not match and the only real offering to justify this arrangement is most often of that one exception, of the kid who cannot understand the “time and place” principle.

As far as statistics go, statistics are by design, meant to prove or disprove any theory. They are collected with a pre-conceived idea to prove and to this end, there are no exceptions indicating that they basically have no meaning unless collected in double blind studies orchestrated by a disinterested party. Back in college, many, many years ago, I had a class on statistical analysis and for my midterm project I set out to statistically prove that Menudo* lead to heroine addiction. I aced the project demonstrated that anyone who ate Menudo* more than twice a month were 176,546 times more likely to become addicted to heroine. Of course the relationship is of cultural significance and not of cause and effect.

One other thing I have to fall back on in this argument is the witnessing of alcohol abuse in northern Alabama. While working at Redstone, I lived in Decatur, Al. a dry county. There was a considerable amount of disinformation about alcohol as recently as the early eighties, check that 1980’s. Alcohol sales were controlled by a criminal element, which did not care how old a person was that purchased the booze. These same men were deacons in the local churches, officers of law enforcement as well as politicians. They controlled the alcohol as well as the marijuana in that area. I actually witnessed children doing yard work for the local sheriff, take the money for the labor, walk next door to the local bootlegger and purchase a six pack of beer with said cash. They kept the sale of alcohol illegal in the area by way of distortion of fact, intimidation and preying on the fears of the uninformed, all the while pocketing hefty profits. The consequences were multifaceted; the local communities received no tax benefit from the alcohol sales, while neighboring counties enjoyed the overwhelming revenue as a windfall, the local teenagers had a much higher alcoholism ratio per capita. A level that rivaled a depressed third world country instead of reflecting a US community and that only further fueled the disinformation.

Please take the time out to actually consider these facts.

*Menudo, the Mexican beef stew, not the Mexican boy band.

E.T.


[edit on 2/6/2009 by eaganthorn]

reply to post by TNT13

I agree that drugs at the base product come from the earth but what you aren't understanding is that Marijuana is one of the only ones available today that is grown then smoked without any other chemical process. Crack and Cocaine need to be worked with once taken off the Coca plant, which involves lab work. Opiates such as Heroin also need to be worked with after being taken from the Popi plant. Many other drugs such as Kedimean, '___', and Extacy need to be synthasized in a lab and are almost completely different from the start product. The only other drug that isn't doctored before distribution, that I can think of; is Mushrooms.

So in short Marijuana and Mushrooms are really two of the few drugs not tainted by lab practices.

I cannot dispute your logic but allow me a moment to further explain mine.

IF God is real and IF he created everything in and on Earth and because of that, we conclude, that all things created by god is natural, including man, then anything we build must also be natural and therefore cannot be artificial.

IF, on the other hand, things are as the Agnostics or Athiests believe and God either doesn't exist at all or is miss understood for aliens or evolution, we can conclude the same. Science has determined that the stuff we are made of, as well as all the eliments, were created in the hearts of stars from extreem heat and pressure. Humans are of the most complicated of all the Earth's organism. If we, complex organisms, can injest simple minerals, foods and gasses and naturally process/combine/break down or manipulate them to something usefull and that is considered all natural, then all we do is natural (inside or out). If someone prepares a salad by tearing lettuce, dicing veggies and combining basalmic vinigar with naturally extracted oil and garlic does that make that salad unnatural? When it comes out the other side smelling bad and brownish green from the many thousands of chemical and biomechanical processes isn't it still natural? We choose what goes in us. If it is all natural, then it must also be all natural.

Now, this thread is about Phelps and that incredibly bad photo so let me take a second to tie my logic into it.

Unless Phelps is an alien from outside Earth and the stuff he was using also alien in its creation/origin, right or wrong, he is being natural to Earth, even if it were Crystal-meth or '___'.

reply to post by scaredlady


Sounds like your jealous. Try fighting weekly at your city council meetings, call daily oyur congressman and write them, telling them to support at the least medical cannabis, then go to a state where its more merciful, and live there.

I think as a country we can live together civily, states that enjoy the safe plant can, those who dont and think God would save them more, go ahead, just stay out of my tolerant understanding state with a heart.

peace out yo diggity-

Originally posted by eaganthorn
I certainly understand your point, but it is misguided and if you believe what you are saying, you are incredibly naïve.

Or maybe I lived with two family members who smoke it and dismally went down hill over a few decades. That's certainly a possibility too, right?

Originally posted by eaganthorn
Drugs can and do disrupt a family and a persons life, no question, but the real cause isn’t the drug, it’s the person using it.

Both family members had quite a bit of talent (one in music) and were quite intelligent. There's no chance now of these fruits coming to bloom. Sorry, the only problem with these two were their ill-advised decision to become drug users. Nevertheless I love them and hope they get out of the tailspin. Thanks for pretending to know more about my family than you do though, that takes real chutzpah.

[edit on 6-2-2009 by saint4God]

reply to post by MichJJC


I honestly can't dispute your logic, I'd absolutely except that as a factual statement but you still have the other side that without human hands certain things wouldn't be possible. I'm mearly saying that marijuana and mushrooms are the two of the most natural drugs, uneffected by circumstance of the human populus. Although I agree with your idea I still disagree with marijuana being the same as other harsher drugs. My point here is that it isn't nearly as damaging as other drugs and therefor shouldn't even be in that category; it's a plant not a drug.

Originally posted by TNT13
Although I agree with your idea I still disagree with marijuana being the same as other harsher drugs. My point here is that it isn't nearly as damaging as other drugs and therefor shouldn't even be in that category; it's a plant not a drug.

It fits the scientific and medical definition of a drug and narcotic.

These two of whom I speak, one did after a few years look for a harsher drug and found crack. Fortunately the person survived to tell about it. Until this time I did not believe pot was a gateway drug, but after visiting this person in rehab I do now. I was naive at the time ten years ago when I sat next to them believing they'd be alright.

[edit on 6-2-2009 by saint4God]

Originally posted by saint4God
Both family members had quite a bit of talent (one in music) and were quite intelligent. There's no chance now of these fruits coming to bloom. Sorry, the only problem with these two were their ill-advised decision to become drug users. Nevertheless I love them and hope they get out of the tailspin. Thanks for pretending to know more about my family than you do though, that takes real chutzpah.

I am sorry for your losses and pain and it may very well explain your irrational fear and stance on this issue, but it does not negate the facts.
Pain does have a way of blinding us from the truth.
I do not pretend to know your family, never did and respectfully, I don’t have to, as the facts are simply the facts. Why would you make that assertion?
If your family members are in a tail spin because of drugs, you might someday learn that they got there, not by the drugs legal status or even by the drugs themselves but solely by their actions and their choices alone and the drugs legal status were inconsequential.
Again, I am truly sorry for your pain.

Originally posted by eaganthorn
I am sorry for your losses and pain

Why am I not believing it? Oh, because of you're insistence that...

Originally posted by eaganthorn
and it may very well explain your irrational fear

Ah, this is it. Sorry, my 'fear' is not irrational, rather am looking at the results. In fact, I never feared it when I should have.

Originally posted by eaganthorn
but it does not negate the facts.

No, it certainly does not and I've provided facts with studies by doctors as proof.

Originally posted by eaganthorn
Pain does have a way of blinding us from the truth.

Often the truth causes pain. You're looking at this backwards my friend. Feeling 'comfortably numb' is the blinder here.

[edit on 6-2-2009 by saint4God]

reply to post by TNT13


Don't get me wrong. I do agree with you. MJ is relatively safe in comparison to other drugs and I also agree it should be legallizes, though I've never even smoked it and probably won't...

I just heard that Kellog's brand cereal has pulled Phelps' contract as a direct result of the photo.

I know a couple (early 40's) whose son is a friend of mine, and they abuse drugs (pot) daily. A few years ago, they were doing OK - they had some financial troubles, but were staying on top of things, thanks to friends and having been blessed with a HUD home. Now, they steal money from my friend and his sister to pay for their pot, and have alienated their daughter. The last time I spoke with his father, he was high. Every time, and I mean EVERY TIME my brother or I have talked to them these past few years, they are without a doubt high, or coming off of one. Failure to buy necessities to support their little habit is only the tip of the iceberg.

I am SICK TO DEATH of hearing how "pot is just a weed" or "I do it to relax". IT IS A DRUG and it is ADDICTIVE and DESTRUCTIVE to everyone around you including yourself. I am very sorry so many of you pro-potheads are too self-absorbed to see that. I can't even begin to express my anger over how this little "plant" has sabotaged my friend and his sister's lives.

I have witnessed with my own eyes the slow, tragic destruction of a family due to abuse of WEED and ONLY WEED. Phelps deserves a nice fine and some jail time - why you ask? Because he was a hero to so many young kids its not even funny, and now "pot" looks cool, because hey, he did it right? This sorry Fckr probably just created a few more of my friends parents, and for that, I hold him accountable for their children's futures.



[edit on 6-2-2009 by ACEMANN]

At the end of the day what does it really matter? He's a kid who swims well and that's really about it.

reply to post by scaredlady


The problem with a lot of these overachievers is that that is all they are, is an athlete. And generally, in the pursuit of success, they are not allowed to be children.

For instance, some doctors on Greys Anatomy said, we are 10 year olds with degrees. They spend so much time for studying, they never experience real life.

I have heard prestigiou hard studying schools like Hopkins actually have to make the kids have "fun time" and get their heads out of a book. That could just be a rumor.

The other thing a lot of people don't know is that olympic athletes, especially those who win, suffer a lot of depression. You hit your pinnacle between 16 and 20. so what in the world do you do with the rest of your life?

You have driven, people support you, they have high expectations. You spend 90 hours a week practisign. YOu go to the olympics in parads and glamour and limos and then WHAM! It is done. Your on a cereal box, and you go home.

It boggles the mind of someone so young. I tend to think the olympics should be 18 and over.

Phelps may be having trouble with the adjustment.

We only see the super athletes, not the human side. And they are still human.
His life has never been remotely normal, so he doesn't know how to make normal decisions regarding it.

I just can't imagine, everyone expecting so much of you. (I don't have this problem.
:lol

They expect you to be perfect all the time, they expect you to be a winner all the time. They expect expect expect.

It would be like being 18 and handing a fortune 500 company and being expected to run it well. What a mind job.

There is bound to be rebellion now and again. And someone trying to find out who they really are.

I don't care for Michael Phelps, but I think he is a problem someone else created.





[edit on 6-2-2009 by nixie_nox]

Originally posted by saint4God
Why am I not believing it? Oh, because of you're insistence that...

Then my sadness for you is doubly so as I am sincere about your pain and you now also have my pity.

No, it certainly does not and I've provided facts with studies by doctors as proof.

Respectfully, I'm afraid you haven't supplied any real facts, all you have supplied has been previously debunked, perhaps you should reread ALL of the information supplied in this thread.

Often the truth causes pain. You're looking at this backwards my friend. Feeling 'comfortably numb' is the blinder here.

I'm afraid you are assuming too much here as I haven't been comfortably numb in a great many years, (that time and place thing again) and I have never known truth to cause me pain. Try not to be afraid of truth my dear, it cannot hurt you, it can only set you free.

Again, I am sorry for your pain, and someday the truth as to who is actually responsible for your family members problems will surface. Try not to be so hard on them or yourself.

Originally posted by eaganthorn
Then my sadness for you is doubly so as I am sincere about your pain and you now also have my pity.

This is patronizing, you do not know what it is like or you would not be endorsing how harmless the narcotic is.

Originally posted by eaganthorn
Respectfully, I'm afraid you haven't supplied any real facts, all you have supplied has been previously debunked, perhaps you should reread ALL of the information supplied in this thread.

What's to debunk, all medical research? My family has been debunked? Are you serious? Please present your data by doctors. Then prove to me my two family members did not screw up their lives with this drug.

Originally posted by eaganthorn
I'm afraid you are assuming too much here as I haven't been comfortably numb in a great many years,

I did not assume anything, I did not say you were 'comfortably numb' neither now or in the past. I said (and will say again) becoming 'comfortably numb' puts blinders on a person. It sheilds them from the harsh reality of what living fully awake and aware in world is actually like.

Originally posted by eaganthorn
(that time and place thing again) and I have never known truth to cause me pain.

When you learn the truth that someone tried to kill themselves, this does not cause you pain? That's quite disturbing.

Originally posted by eaganthorn
Try not to be afraid of truth my dear, it cannot hurt you, it can only set you free.

I should feel so liberated that we kill people in wars, genocide and abortions. Add to that child abuse, rape, and global slave trading. Thanks for that uplifting remark . I'm sure there's a proposition out there that I should toke up so I don't feel the painful truth, but pain is very real and we're meant to feel it for a reason. It build strength, character, dignity and understanding, not pseudo-pity. It causes people to want to DO something about it instead of hiding in a fog of smoke.

[edit on 6-2-2009 by saint4God]

reply to post by saint4God


Gateway drug is a myth, the reason that people get into other drugs is because they are looking for something stronger with a greater affect; Marijuana is not addictive. Therefor it is personality that makes a person loath for a greater experience; most are satisfied with the subtle affects of marijuana. If the arguement was that marijuana was infact addictive, the addiction would be mentally not physically because it does not contain any addictive substances. Like Tabacco naturally produces nicotine Marijuana naturally produces THC which has been proven time and time again to be not addictive.

THC Addictive??

This article is also very interesting, telling the long lost tale of why Marijuana is illegal Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The reason Marijuana is Illegal.



[edit on 6-2-2009 by TNT13]