Does anyone think this guy isn’t on some sort of major doping, just like Lance Armstrong.

But what do we do? Barack Obama’s intrusion into the state approved medical marijuana clincs has set the movement back by a decade. And the Administration is not doing this because they feel medical marijuana is necessarily evil. In fact, the Santa Rosa, Calif. “Press Democrat had issued a plea back in the Spring of 2012 for readers to understand that if they held a valid prescription for med marijuana, they would soon be able to get their prescription filled, with nice green buds, from a pharmacy in Great Britain. (Talk about unnecessary job outsourcing!)

The whole issue is about state control, and letting favored entities like the Private Prison system, the government police and local police, Big Pharma and Big Banks get to have a whole lot of control (ie, profit) at the expense of the people.

But what do the people think? The guy who used his tractor to run over and destroy seven police cars in Vermont recently is becoming a national hero, if the response on Facebook and Twitter is any indication.

I’d strongly suspect HGH in his case. It’s been suggested on numerous occasions. He is very much of that era…now, he could (and should) be arrested for that. I’d not argue. But pot? If he wants to take that risk, and providing he doesn’t harm anyone else as a result, it’s up to him.

He’s one lucky whiteboy. He might have been detained for WWB*, frisked, and thrown into the pokey for a long time.

* walking while black

BTW, I think you meant to write “put on probation” not “put on prohibition”.

While I appreciate the sentiment behind the post, I think the argument against the criminalization of marijuana here just isn’t persuasive. Wouldn’t a serious answer to that question suggest that the only people who should go to prison for anything are those whose imprisonment, on balance, would be better for society? I think this would mean that we’d have a multi-tiered justice system where all of the more valuable people get to buy off jail time by winning medals or writing books. In fact, this is the same argument used time and time again to shield the powerful from prosecution (especially white-collar criminals). I think what you mean to say is that you don’t believe that anyone should be imprisoned for marijuana use, because in all cases it’s unfair. I agree with that sentiment, but I disagree with your argument as it stands.

I think it was Abbie Hoffman who said something to the effect that (and I paraphrase) “the problem with making pot illegal is that it turns so many important people into criminals.”

I don’t. Then again, I think most, if not all, of the Olympic athletes are doping on something. What about that young Chinese woman who broke all kinds of swimming records??

People who think these youngsters aren’t on something aren’t living in reality.

I’m with you. I think if the article is phrased a bit differently, then I agree.

I really could give a sh*t about Phelps – or anyone – smoking pot. We’ve all made all the arguments here numerous times about why it’s still criminalized.

I think what this article is saying is: look at Phelps. He smokes pot, but he’s still a very focused athlete who worked hard and “made it” to the top of his competition. Some pot smoking didn’t “ruin” him, as some would like to make it seem.

That said, I’ve seen some very teh stoopit comments at news blog sites from idiots whiiiiining about Phelps smoking pot and saying ridiculous things like Phelps should have ALL of his medals stripped away bc he smoked some doobie.

Per usual: teh stooopit, it burnz.

Well, we all know that there is scientific evidence that proves marijuana is a performance enhancing drug./s

>>

hmmm,
phillipmorris
elililly
glaxosmithklein
budweiser
miller
scoresofjackbootedlocalcoppers
scoresofdipsh*tstateprosecutors
mexicandrugcartels
thedrugmoneylaunderingbanks
georgiapacific
weyerhouser
prisoncorpofamerica
billclinton
gwbush
barack obama …

to name a few

In the same way, the actual use of marijuana didn’t stop Bill Clinton or Barack Obama from graduating from top universities and eventually becoming President.

Could it also have contributed to their narcissism and neo-liberal views, their bad judgment in palling around with scum like Rubin, Summers, Geithner, Dick Morris, Rahm, Cass Sunstein? If so, I’m gonna have to reconsider my previous support for pot legalization.

I doubt Phelps is doping. If you were to genetically design a swimmer from scratch, you would want a long torso, big feet, height of 6 ft 2 to 6 ft 5 inches and exceptionally flexible ankles/feet.

Phelps is all of these. He has size 14 feet, is 6 ft 4 inches, and has double jointed feet/ankles. The fact that he has not been more dominant in the Olympics tells me he is slowing down. Marijuana perhaps???

Phelps is like Shaq, the ideal physical structure for the position he plays.

The same kind of contorted reasoning “explains” Usain Bolt (except all the original reasons given, mainly that he was taller than any sprinter before, have been forgotten, as all his shorter rivals have themselves pulled their times up into the “wtf” range). The big feet (and, let’s face it, the mouth and ears) would be themselves explained by HGH. It’s professional sport. Few if any of these people are honest. On any level. Then read the reports of Bolt’s training (likes a party and is “lazy” but the yams apparently make the difference) and Phelps, back in the day in Ann Arbor, visiting a particular diner for his breakfast – consisting of carefully controlled nutrition? No. Vast quantities of pancakes with syrup and cream. At least the cyclists try to make it look real with what they eat. Swimmers (incidentally, the record of FINA on drug testing is something ti behold) seemed not to need to bother. In short, it’s not just Phelps. It’s a discipline run by a bunch of bandits who actually make the UCI look straight and honest.

I don’t think Phelps is doping either, but it wouldn’t make me like him less if he was. And conversely, I liked him a lot better after his bong photo-op. Here’s Mad Magazine’s take on Phelps which, incidentally, the Mad of my youth would never have gotten away with:

http://www.madmagazine.com/blog/2012/08/01/mad-celebrates-michael-phelps

Of course, I don’t (nor does anyone else here), have any proof of Phelps “Doping” or not “Doping” to induce his super performances. But my main response is that some people are simply extra ordinary. For instance, back in grammar school in the 60′s, we studied Jim Thorpe. He was an Olympic legend, participating in a variety of different Olympic events, and getting medals in most of the sports he participated in. And that was many decades before the “Doping” substances came into play.

Some people are really gifted at a particular sport. Also, consider this: In the Old Old Days, some top level Norwegians skiers would ski from their home town to Oslo, some three or more hundreds of miles away, enter all day competitions, get a good night’s sleep, and then ski home. It was simply accepted that that was how an individual got to Oslo for a skiing competition – you skied there.

Now we have sports announcers who think it is remarkable that Missy Franklin entered two events in the same day. How is that any different from the fact that she swims all day every day, 24/7 for years and years? I would only find it remarkable if I heard she refused to fly on an airliner home, but instead dove into the Thames, and from there to the Channel and from there on to the Atlantic and the welcoming arms of the Statue of Liberty.

“Top level Norwegian skiers” are about the worst possible group of sportspeople you could bring to an argument that there is little doping in professional sport. The biathlon is really where it all started. Those boys (and girls) made cyclists look pure as the driven snow.

I think he is NOT on any drug. I don’t understand the impulse to tear someone down. I know something about swimming, since my two kids were swimmers, and his performance is entirely possible without drugs, with the training regimens these athletes have today.

Well, you know, before steroids and human growth hormone, athletes were taking drugs. Like ‘greenies’ in baseball. But yowza, think how great Mickey Mantle would’ve been if he’d juiced like Barry Bonds instead of being an alcoholic? And Teddy Ballgame, too. (Not that Ted Williams was an alcoholic, but lordy, what his numbers would look like if he was like Bonds.)

The question is not a joke or just asked rhetorically.

Okay, well then I am of the opinion that our society would have been better off if Clinton or Obama had been prosecuted for marijuana possession and had not become Presidents.

I forgot to add Tim Lincecum. Timmeh! Fuck, yeah!

Um, er, you know, they say W. was a coke-fiend. Just throwing it out there. I have no special knowledge. But if W. did cocaine, it’s probably the most single, solitary thing about him that could be considered cool.

We know the rest, however.

In the same way, the actual use of marijuana didn’t stop Bill Clinton or Barack Obama from graduating from top universities and eventually becoming President.

That certainly ISN’T a recommendation for marijuana.

msmolly,

then you’ll know that FINA is the body responsible for drug testing swimmers. You’ll also know that between 2006 and 2008 (I think it was then), not one single out of competition blood test was carried out on a swimmer – presumably FINA’s decision.

No. Swimming is a murky world. Whether your kids were at the level where you could see that is another question. FINA make the UCI look pure as driven snow, which takes some doing.

newsflash! the US Govt conducted an extensive marijuana study back in the 70s when they worried that 30% of high sch kids smoked/enjoyed pot… they chose UC Med Center in San F due to the close proximity of ‘chronic dopers’ who smoked ‘often’… and to compare newbies to the chronics…

The chronics played better table tennis, word games, pinball… it enhanced their motor skills… a bell curve assimilation of effects was discovered…. THCs active ingredient, 11-hydroxy-THC, is the only psychoactive in THC, and is synthesized and stored in the liver. As the only psychoactive component, this explains why often first-timers don’t really get riled/stoned… as well as why chronics, after 10 days without, get zonked (all the stored THC (11-hydroxy-thc) in the liver is pushed into the bloodstream on its way to stonesville…
U hipsters, U know this is fact, eh?
Nationwide, why is it U never hear headlines like: Pothead Kills 5 in head-on???
Enhanced driving skills of the chronic group explains it perfectly. Our tax dollars proved Pot is harmless. Obama’s election promise “I will never use federal power against med pot users.” proves his malfeasance.
I have built 45 luxury homes saturated with THC…no worries… they are all perfect; and to anyone who claims weed is debilitating… perhaps for the first few weeks…
Now, given the swill our govt has morphed into, I prescribe forced smokeouts for all govt employees until their buzz eradicates their lying, cheating and stealing… yeah.

This IS a recommendation to fire-it-up!!!
Oh yeah, Our tax dollars paid for the 5 year study, but since the results didn’t jibe with govt they deep-sixed the entire program, now unheard of… brought to you by a chronic from the original study… they paid me to smoke weed… nirvana for the college kid!!!