Sure Mr. Phelps was unwise to risk his $$$$$ endorsements by smoking pot once at a party. He has to be careful now of people taking advantage of him and trying to get him in trouble or take away his money and fame. Hopefully he has the college education and maturity to make good choices for himself. And family and true friends to help him.
But let's not be hypocritical, since we PUSH and LOOK AWAY at lots of similar ATHLETES and even STAR ATHLETES and our precious USA SOLDIERS who are all allowed and encouraged to smoke tobacco, which is a terrible unhealthy addictive drug of nicotine with many other very toxic substances. It is strange that it is still, after Sinatra, such a positive popular image of sexiness and maturity to smoke ,when we know what it does to turn your lungs to black glop and give you lung cancer, etc. Like we are suppose to look forward to kissing "licking the ashtray" and any future baby can look forward to at least second-hand smoke or ,gee, maybe nicotine-tainted breast milk. And look at the tremendous medical cost in our collective future and each person or addicts future ,not to mention all the tobacco lawsuits and money spent on lawyers !!
U.S.A. SOLDIERS are sold cheaper cigarettes and use to be given them. This is a really stupid national policy, to give our brave fighting men and women something we know without a shadow of doubt to be a killer,,,when they are risking their very lives for us back home. Most of the services feed the soldiers-contractees well but do not have PE/PT regular/daily exercise sessions to keep the soldiers fit;I was in the Navy and the brass had next to zero interest in our physical fitness !!
I recently saw a PROFESSIONAL and AMATEUR ICE SKATER show, and was shocked to see many of these STAR ATHLETES lighting up cigarettes out back of the ice rink as soon as the show was over! What message does this send to our youth about how fit you need to be to do this difficult sport of ICE SKATING ?!!? Does it reduce food hunger that much or keep them smoker-skinny versus fit-skinny ? And these are FAMOUS SKATERS as famous as or more famous than Mr. Phelps !! They have a dirty little secret that they are surely ashamed of, being unable to quit the nicotine drug addiction habit !!
I also recently saw a touring Broadway-type show and MOST OF THE DANCERS smoked !! How can this be ?! And why does "Broadway" and its traveling shows not have a better health standard for its dancers ? Don't they care about the health of their employees and their futures? How can these amazing ATHLETES continue even today to destroy their lungs and long term health while trying to perform at such high endurance levels ? Yes, yes, it is legal for adults to smoke in the USA , but it is very unhealthy and unwise and expensive in medical costs to all of us, and the smoking addict. So why do we set such low standards for our STARS and our PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES and our AMATEUR ATHLETES ??
Even in high school in the 1960s there were SCHOOL ATHLETIC TEAMS ,BOTH VARSITY and JUNIOR VARSITY, where if you smoked or did not smoke did not matter to the team or the school or the children's parents. What the hell are we teaching about a terrible addictive and unhealthy drug, nicotine, and its social stupid style device, the cigarette ?!!?
Some consider life a blessing, a treasure, or a phenomenal gift. And this is how we use this 'blessing'??! Surely, even if you have not talked to a smoker lately, most can agree this is just an ADDICTION, with little pleasure, and with terrible costs. I see a 20 yr old beautiful woman who smokes,,,and i see transposed the black gooey lungs from a medical journal of an old smoker. Talk about a way to get vain physical-beauty high school kids to stop smoking by having them dissect smokers lungs and not just healthy innocent frogs.
If we can not outlaw this stupid habit and addiction by adults with a Big weakness of character because of the Constitution, maybe we can offer these addicts health prevention and treatment programs in high schools and colleges and say that if you want to play on the school team, you must sign a pledge not to smoke and be an addict-athlete ? And if you want to be in the Olympics , you coaches and team members must behave to a higher personal health standard, and not be a drug addict smoker-athlete. The Olympics now allows coaches of 'junior Olympians' to smoke in front of its learning athletes !!
Yes you can smoke,,, or you can not smoke and play high school and college sports, professionally and as an amateur compete in national ice skating competition,,,and if you want to dance with our dance company we will take the best care of you and your health now and in the future by NOT LETTING YOU SMOKE ON THE JOB. San Francisco lets it's cops smoke on the job, but that is just police union strength stupidity !! My boss succeeds in totally banning employees from smoking while at work. And he pays/wastes $400-500/month on little-preventive Kaiser.
