What Michael Phelps Should Have Said

[Truth2Tell]

From: Reason Magazine

Smoking pot shouldn't be a crime. Or the public's business.

Radley Balko | February 2, 2009

Dear America,

I take it back. I don’t apologize.

Because you know what? It’s none of your goddamned 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 bullshit. 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.

More here...

http://www.reason.com/news/show/131438.html

[Ian David]

1. Whatever happened to "I didn't inhale?" n/t

[KG]

2. 'fuck you, world- I got 8 gold medals, what you got?'

that's all he really needs to say....

[krabigirl]

3. Finally! Someone who agrees with me :/. (or so it seems...)

[CLANG]

4. Michael Phelps is my new hero

Anyone that can eat 50,000 calories a day, and have washboard abs - and win gold medals at his whim, all the while tokin' a little mary jane... He's a friggen genious!!

And YES, Marijuana should be legalized, sold at liquor stores, taxed to shit, while also lowering the price.

[liberalmuse]

5. Amen.

I'm against this apologizing for smoking something that should never been illegal in the first place. Christ, much ado about absolutely nothin'. "Yeah, I smoked it, and I enjoyed it. Do you want to go through my underwear drawer next?"

[G_j]

6. great little piece

nothing like dumbfounding logic for "thinking outside the box" ..

[Truth2Tell]

7. kick nt