Monday, February 9, 2009

Bong Voyage

So Olympic champion swimmer Michael Phelps was caught with a bong. Shame, shame. Let the flood of moral outrage begin. As one blogger said, "That'll teach him to stick to alcohol and prescription drug abuse."

If there is one thing that Americans and the media outlets excel at, it's hypocrisy. Drinking is accepted, indulged, embraced as a national past-time. Prescription drugs are a fact of life. No one blinks an eye if someone needs to go on Prozac. But if someone wants to relax with a little weed then all hell breaks loose.

This is not about whether anyone should drink or smoke pot. But the criminalization of marijuana, when hard liquor and pills--both capable of destroying lives --are legal, is harsh and unjust. If there is to be any moral outrage, it should be over the hypocrisy of those expressing moral outrage. I'm sure if Phelps drank booze and took pain killers for his sore muscles, that would be just fine with everybody.

It's time for the national conversation to begin. Take the profits from dealers, save taxpayers billions and use our law enforcement for real crimes. Legalize.


"Totalitarianism is when people believe they can punish their way to perfection." -- House Speaker Newt Gingrich, at a President's Day Republican fundraiser, May 1998


8 comments:

  1. well,,i sympathize because he is just a young-un. not condoning his behaviour,,,it was pretty stupid, in this day and age of cameras on EVERYBODY'S cell phones!! everyone is entitled to a mistake...no...better make that several mistakes and poor choices. only if he continues to be dumb and dumber will he lose my vote. give him a break. can i interest anyone in a locally made, hand-blown glass pipe??

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  2. You're cracking me up. Does the maker of said pipe have the initials B.F. by any chance?

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  3. b.f. only sells "smoking" accessories.

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  4. So tell me more about these locally made hand-blown glass pipes?

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  5. Legalize it, yeah, yeah, and I'll advertise it
    Birds eat it, ants love it
    Fowls eat it, goats love to play in it
    --Peter Tosh

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  6. i hardly think it is fair to lump prozac - a drug that is medically necessary to a lot of people - in with drugs that are, for the most part, purely recreational.

    i don't think prozac users are hypocrites.

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  7. I NEVER SAID Prozac USERS WERE HYPOCRITES. I'm talking about people who think booze and popping pills are a lesser evil but think use of pot is a cause for outrage. I'll agree that Prozac is a bad example. I know there are people who need to be on medication, and I NEVER intended to lump them into this. I'm talking about the people who overmedicate, and the way they choose to do it. I think there is a hypocrisy on the part of those who are scandalized when the choice is pot, but view drinking and unnecessary pill-popping as more socially acceptable.

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