Posted on 02/06/2009 9:15:57 AM PST by bassmaner
And then President Obama, and then George W. Bush, and then Bill Clinton . . .
Michael Phelps, the aquatic icon who won eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympics, has violated the law. When a photograph of him smoking a bongful of marijuana was published, he admitted the crime. The same crime for which the better part of a million people were arrested last year.
Shouldn’t Phelps be charged? Along with President Obama and his two predecessors, all of whom, it seems, used illegal drugs? If not, perhaps it is time to have a serious debate about the drug laws.
Of course, Michael Phelps immediately apologized for his poor judgment. Attention turned to his sponsors, since their contracts include the usual moral clauses, which protect their investment in celebrities who behave foolishly, if not actually immorally. Happily for Phelps’s bank account, some of his big-money backers, including Speedo, Hilton, and Omega, accepted his apology. Subway and Visa haven’t been talking, but don’t look like they are going to jump. Kellogg’s, so far in the minority, announced it would drop Phelps.
But if marijuana use is so horrid as to warrant criminalization, why are we wasting time discussing whether Phelps will be able to keep his endorsement deals? Shouldn’t he be prosecuted—just like millions of other Americans, whose lives have been ruined by criminal convictions for smoking pot?
In 2007, 872,721 Americans were arrested for marijuana violations, 775,138 of them for possession. Some number of the latter undoubtedly were caught growing or selling and were charged with lesser offenses, but, in any case, hundreds of thousands of Americans ended up in jail for doing precisely what Michael Phelps did: lighting up. Roughly three-quarters of those arrested for marijuana offenses were, like Phelps, under 30. With most of their lives ahead of them, they face the greatest harm from prosecution under the drug laws.
So why shouldn’t Phelps go to jail?
To ask the question is to answer it. While smoking pot may be a stupid thing to do for many reasons—risking adverse health effects, endangering endorsements, undermining Phelps’s status as a celebrity role model—he hurt no one but himself. He could have been photographed while drunk and stumbling out of a party, and it would have been no different. Bad press and angry sponsors would have forced an abject apology, and everyone would have moved on. Just like with his marijuana hit.
Of course, advocates of prohibition argue that illicit drugs are different. And so they are—mostly because their use is illegal, a situation that creates the most serious problems usually associated with drug use.
The arguments are old but clear. Whatever the law might say, the people have voted with their lungs: 95 million Americans over the age of 21 have smoked pot, 20 million have smoked in the last year, and 11 million use the drug regularly. It’s hard to believe that all of them, almost one-third of the U.S. population, are criminals who deserve jail time.
Moreover, the violence associated with drugs is principally from prohibition rather than use. Drunks are far more likely to commit (and be victims of) violent crimes than are users of marijuana. Prohibition-era Chicago offered a dramatic lesson in the impact of banning a widely used drug. That city’s violent era is being played out on a larger scale in Colombia and Mexico, where urban and rural communities have been overwhelmed with drug-gang violence.
The health arguments remain disputed, but the basic question is whether we live in a free society in which people can choose to engage in risky behavior. Cigarette smokers, hang gliders, and rock climbers all take risks that many others view as unacceptable. That’s no reason for arresting them.
And it’s pretty hard to argue that marijuana use will prevent Phelps from being productive. Most all of us probably remember pothead classmates who ended up wildly successful in their chosen careers. Will some people use to excess? Yes, just as some people drink too much, gamble too much, spend too much, and act irresponsibly in a multitude of other ways. Criminal law is not the answer.
Is Michael Phelps likely to go to jail? No, and for good reason. But for the same reason, the rest of us should not be arrested for smoking pot, either. Whether marijuana use is good or bad is not the issue. Short of engaging in behavior that directly threatens others, people should be left alone. That’s what a society grounded in individual liberty is—or at least should be—all about.
—Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. A former special assistant to Pres. Ronald Reagan, he is the author of the forthcoming Leviathan Unchained: Washington’s Bipartisan Big Government Consensus.
I think he should be arrested. My kids heard this news, knowing who he is and seeing his most impressive win against McCain, and they asked, “Mom, you mean that President Obama does DRUGS?”
Now, I am not one of those ‘politicians are role models for kids’ people, but I think our President ought to be held to some sort of account for this type of behavior, some sort of standard. Now if they don’t arrest him or charge him with something, the kids will be asking, “Why?” I don’t think that a 9 year old needs to hear about the double standard we have in this country for famous people and the little people.
I don’t buy that prohibition created Al Capone. That’s propaganda. Do we have prohibition now? Do we have organized crime?
It’s not OK for someone to drink. It is legal. Should it be? Probably not. Another gift of FDR was overturning prohibition. I don’t think it would be wise, or would work very well to ban it now though. Just like it wouldn’t be wise to legalize dope.
Gee, they all didn't seem to mind that Phelps was busted for DUI, but doing pot at a private party, they suddenly realize he isn't a role model.
ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH
Off wid his head
/s
It would destroy society which is on the eve of destruction anyway. The only reason I never smoked pot as a teen was because it was illegal.
I prefer Curity Curad myself
And what is organized crime's bread and butter??? Drugs, gambling and prostitution. Victimless crimes for the most part. Deadly sins in the eyes of the uber-pious types that feel the need to micro manage every aspect of everyone's lives.
And you don't see the destruction caused by the current outrageous, hypocritical laws? No, it would not destroy anything but organized crime, and pharmaceutical poison factories. (redundancy?)
“tax collection”
I don’t disagree that the taxation disgusts me, but I will take half a loaf over a none at all. (Plus, someone has to pay for Obama’s Porkapalooza.)
When drugs are illegal, the profits end up in the hands of evil people, since good people generally don’t run drug operations under prohibition.
“That’s what is called snide and overwrought hyperbole. That seems to be the way of Amsterdam Libertarians.”
So Expecting you to be consistent is Snide?
Smaller Government should mean Less Government, without all the hypocritical “waivers” the “Nanny Staters” want to employ to allow them bigger Government when it suits their views.
Senators and House Representatives are much more harmful to the country than pot.
“So those who oppose the legalization, dissemination, and use of drugs are “pseudo-conservative”?”
Yes, like liberals they think they know how people should run their lives, and intend to force them to do so.
(And no, I don’t do drugs. NEVER have, in fact.)
I think alcohol is legal, but I guess he had to throw Bush in there.
Then when they’re made legal evil will just be redefined as good.
“No, it would not destroy anything but.....”
Are you sure?
“Then when they’re made legal evil will just be redefined as good.”
No less arbitrary than making certain drugs illegal.
Using drugs is stupid. So are many things. That’s up to the individual.
ME, I AM TIRED OF PAYING TAXES ON A STUPID WAR ON DRUGS.
Legalize them. Tax them. Balance the budget.
AMEN!
According to the people who want to destroy society those are organized crime’s bread and butter.
“Deadly sins in the eyes of the uber-pious types...”
If you believe anyone who thinks pot is a deadly sin is uber-pious, I’m done talking to you.
“micro manage every aspect of everyone’s lives.”
Drug laws aren’t coming from the left, the left loves drugs. They’re the only one’s who want to micro manage your life. How is it that keeping current drug laws is micro-managing every aspect of your life. Oh, I see. Every aspect of your life is focused around pot.
Hey pray to Bama, he is your guy.
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