Posted on 02/03/2009 4:19:16 PM PST by Wolfie
Key sponsors Speedo, Omega back Michael Phelps after apology for marijuana pipe photo
Two of Michael Phelps' leading sponsors expressed support for the Olympic great Monday, a day after he apologized for being photographed in a British newspaper inhaling from a marijuana pipe. Luxury Swiss watchmaker Omega termed Phelps' actions a private matter and "nonissue." Swim wear manufacturer Speedo called the 23-year-old American a "valued member of the Speedo team."
Phelps acknowledged "regrettable" behavior and "bad judgment" after the photo appeared Sunday in the tabloid News of the World.
Speedo gave Phelps a $1 million bonus for his record eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics. Phelps joined Speedo in 2001, a year after making his Olympic debut in Sydney. He dominated the Beijing Games in the company's high-tech LZR Racer suit.
"In light of Michael Phelps' statement yesterday, Speedo would like to make it clear that it does not condone such behavior and we know that Michael truly regrets his actions," Speedo, which is based in Nottingham, said in a statement to The Associated Press.
Related links PHELPS Photo "Michael Phelps is a valued member of the Speedo team and a great champion. We will do all that we can to support him and his family."
Omega said it was "strongly committed" to its relationship with Phelps, calling his Beijing accomplishments "among the defining sporting achievements in the history of sport."
"The current story in the press involves Michael Phelps' private life and is, as far as Omega is concerned, a nonissue," the company said.
The News of the World said the picture was taken during a November house party while Phelps was visiting the University of South Carolina. Under World Anti-Doping Agency rules, an athlete is subject to sanctions only for a positive test during competition periods.
"Michael Phelps is a great Olympic champion," the International Olympic Committee said in a statement to the AP. "He apologized for his inappropriate behavior. We have no reason to doubt his sincerity and his commitment to continue to act as a role model."
Back awaaaay from the monitor...
We all remove part of ourselves from reality periodically, some with drugs some without. Most “recreational activities” involve temporarily getting away from reality for a while, watching a movie, reading a book, going for a hike, doing crafts. If nothing else you gotta sleep once in a while, and while you sleep you dream. Getting away from reality is an important part of good mental health, it’s only a problem for the ones that forget how to come back.
Personal ethics.
Being outlawed might be the reason for the criminal activity but the narcissism of the end user is what drives demand.
After all when you face God and he shows you the victims of your use then what is your response? “Not my fault?”
If you knew that someone got shot for every jar of peanut butter you ate, are you still going to be eating peanut butter?
LOL, I think you meant to say "You're worse than Hitler!"
So what if someone lives on a farm and grows their own? I don’t see a lot of victims there.
/nanny state assclown mode
I don’t have a problem but really how many of the joint smoking Freepers and general population really grow their own? Did Michael Phelps demand proof the marijuana was grown behind the house he took the bong hit?
If home grown pot was really big there wouldn’t be need to smuggle it across the borders.
Honestly on both sides is needed. The holier than thou crowd gets off by lecturing others on how to live while the other side pretend they would support medical marijuana as passionately if they didn’t want to smoke for their own enjoyment.
Responsibility for your actions is my problem with it.
I think most people would say the violence would go down tremendously if not stop in the event that it were legalized.
I’m just saying that not all joints are the product of smuggling, but being a product of an illegal activity does invite other illegal activities. Not that legalization won’t involve illegal activities, but probably of a very different, non-violent kind.
I don’t smoke and have no desire to if it were legal, but that doesn’t mean people can’t believe it isn’t a waste of resources to prosecute people who do use.
A lot of bad things happen up stream in the supply chain of things we use every day. Whether it’s miners getting black lung to supply us with coal or steal workers losing body parts to the mill or fishing boats sinking or drug cartels having their little wars.
If God is going to hold all of the upstream “victims” of our various usages against us I don’t think any of us are making it to heaven.
Am I for legalization, sure why not. Even harder drugs like meth caused less violence back when they was legal.
But for the individual user if you know your actions of buying and smoking a joint is causing others to suffer is it ethical to keep doing it?
The coal miner, fisherman, steelworker, etc takes risks for employment. In much the same way the drug addict takes risks for their own reasons. Yes I can argue there is a certain amount of “guilt” if you buy gold knowing that a large amount of miners die for large amount of gold mined.
The big difference is that US Steel don’t go out and shoot a six year old because she was in the way in a drive by shooting or the coal company isn’t going to kidnap a girl as a sex slave because you buy coal.
I don’t care about those who make bad choices as those who never get a choice. It isn’t even about drugs. Congress outlawed clove cigarettes sometime last year. Hell I used to love to smoke them and I think the law is stupid. But I am not going to go out and buy black market clove cigarettes and create a demand that leads to violence.
If you grow your own, fine but if you are buying your marijuana from a dealer knowing that most likely it is causing all sorts of violence and death up the supply chain then that is the most narcissistic act I can think of.
In fact I have more respect for the hard core addict who has to have the drugs than the social users who can take it or leave it.
To me it is much the same as the drunk drivers. Getting yourself killed is one thing, getting innocent people killed in pursuit of your own pleasure is one of the worse sins.
What about polution? Things aren’t so bad now but back in the gray triangle days of the rust belt there were plenty of “innocent bystanders” paying for US Steel’s profits.
Clove smokes aren’t illegal, at least not federally. But even if they were, it’s not the demand that leads to violence, it’s the black market. If you ain’t smoking it somebody else will.
I gave up pot a long time ago, scotch tastes better. But that doesn’t mean drug laws aren’t stupid, and that doesn’t mean holding user accountable for what suppliers in a foreign country MIGHT be doing (don’t really know if joint X came from one of the cartels doing crazy stuf in Mexico or not) and wouldn’t be doing if there weren’t these stupid laws.
Your equivalency is all wrong. A drunk driver is actively doing something risky to others. A drug user (assuming they aren’t driving) is not. You’re using way too much contageous sin logic. Somebody I don’t know doing something I can’t control that might or might not (depending on the supply chain) be related to getting me that stuff isn’t my fault, isn’t my problem, and I’m not carrying the guilt for it. You’re waving around that same kind of universal guilt that people used for all Black Friday shoppers (and American capitalists in general) after the Long Island incident, their stupidity isn’t my fault.
Do you really think those arguments is going to work when you stand in judgment in front of God?
Things like steel or coal bring good to society in general, pollution has to be weighed against that good. Exactly what good does dope or other illegal drugs do for society? Other than some medical use it isn’t good for anything but pleasure. Thereby you can’t compare a farmer losing an arm to produce apples for your dinner table or a steel plant polluting to the drug trade.
**Somebody I don’t know doing something I can’t control that might or might not (depending on the supply chain) be related to getting me that stuff isn’t my fault, isn’t my problem, and I’m not carrying the guilt for it.**
By your logic it don’t matter what others do as long as it don’t effect me I take it.
I agree the laws are stupid, the government is responsible for that but I don’t see any responsibility on your part.
I don’t pretend to know what God thinks. I know what I think, and I don’t believe in collective guilt.
What others do doesn’t matter if you’re not a direct participating part of it. I didn’t do it, I didn’t tell them to do it, I didn’t setup the system that encouraged them to do it, I don’t have any responsibility. I am not the conscience of the planet.
So let me ask you this question.
Would you buy a product made by a slave?
That was the intent of my question. Since you have never tried pot then you have no first hand knowledge of its effects........
Kinda like a virgin college professor explaining an orgasm...............LOL!
Red herring question.
Here’s the problem with your hole position. Basically you’re saying that a guy that smokes pot is bad because a fellow “employee” of the guy that sold the pot to a guy who sold the pot to a guy who sold the pot to a guy who sold the pot to the guy smoking the pot killed an innocent bystander. If you’re going to play six degrees of seperation on guilt like that we’re all going to hell.
No I am not saying the guy who smokes is bad. I am saying his actions cause bad things to happen. Take Phelps I don’t think he is bad or you was bad when you toked. I think he was ignorant of what his actions caused.
If you think it takes six degrees of separation to find an innocent victim of someone using an illegal drug then yes you are ignorant.
I know how supply chains work, so I don't merely think but KNOW that the murder example you're using is at least six degrees separated from the guy smoking a joint.
“A guy who’s in middle age like me is not much influenced by endorsements, anyway.”
Not to mention, a speedo on a middle age guy is not a happy visual.
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