I can't believe how crazy people are going over the Michael Phelps pot smoking 'scandal'.
Everything is a scandal these days.
Kellogg's will not re new Phelps's contract at months end because you know, it's breakfast cereal for kids and apparently sticky Thai purple heads and Fruit Loops do not mix well.
The problem with being a role model is exactly that.
You're a role model.
Phelps has been suspended from swimming (USA Swimming) for three months which includes all sport funding from the federal agency.
They're being nice which is good.
But they had to do something.
He trained his entire life in a pool.
Watching thousands of miles of black lines trail away underneath him.
Sacrificed his childhood for his sport.
For the nation.
He won eight gold medals.
Inspired an entire globe.
And with one puff of a bong, its a wipe out?
I'm just saying,
More than 100,000 people die every year from alcohol in America and that is perfectly legal.
Less than 10,ooo from marijuana related deaths.
You can't overdose from marijuana, but you can easily drink yourself to death.
On the sofa.
It's OK to get smashed on booze, staggering down the street being a nuisance.
But you can't smoke pot with your mates without being crucified it seems.
Tobacco kills millions.
But you can buy a pack of fags willy nilly.
But smoking pot is different it seems.
If your pictured doing so that is.
Weird right?
I think so.
If the government found a 'morally acceptable' way to tax marijuana, they would legalize it.
It's the biggest cash crop in the world.
Follow Up-
Police from South Carolina have arrested eight people who attended the party where Michael Phelps was photographed using a bong.
Police have made eight arrests in connection with the party that led to publication of a photograph of Beijing Olympic hero Michael Phelps, television station WIS reported on Tuesday.
Phelps, the American swim star who won a record eight gold medals at Beijing six months ago, was not among those charged in a probe by the Richland County Sheriff's Department, according to the report.
Seven arrests were made for drug possession and another for distribution of drugs, with arrests resulting from search warrants served by the sheriff's department as part of their probe, WIS reported.
None of those arrested was named in the report.
A photograph of Phelps holding a bong, a pipe typically used for smoking marijuana, was published by a British newspaper last week and touched off a media frenzy that humiliated the Olympic hero.
The bong Phelps was holding in the pictures, one that led to his three-month suspension and the loss of possible renewal of a sponsorship deal with cerealmakwer Kelloggs, was confiscated by the sheriff's department.
Sources told the station that the bong's owner was trying to sell it on eBay for 100,000 dollars and the person was not even at the party but was among those charged.
The report said the photograph appeared to be taken at a house located within the city limits of this state capital, but the report said the Columbia Police Department has not taken an active role in the investigation.
Earlier on Tuesday the Baltimore Sun reported Phelps will decide in the next two months whether he will compete at the 2012 London Olympics.
"It will take a few months," Phelps told his home town paper.
"I'll give it 30 or 60 days. I think it will be better.
"I'm already happier now than I was, just having some part of my life back to normal, being able to swim again, having fun, joking around."
AFP
