Pot charge possible after Phelps' pipe photo

[RonPaulFanInGA]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gav61lYnY-W3nlJteKSkTVKT6buAD9649UMG0


"COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Olympic superstar Michael Phelps could face criminal charges as part of the fallout from a photo that surfaced showing the swimmer smoking from a marijuana pipe at a University of South Carolina house party."

[ClayTrainor]

Anyone who wants to condemn him for this crap, needs to get their head checked.

Why waste taxpayer money on court hearings, and non-violent drug charges. It's such a stupid waste of money and makes nobody safer.

[Dorfsmith]

Don't they have anything better to do? Phelps should lead a revolution to legalize.

[kathy88]

Let's arrest some bankers instead.

[dannno]

Don't they have anything better to do? Phelps should lead a revolution to legalize.

Ya that's the only thing good i can see coming out of this..

[phill4paul]

"Your honor, I didn't inhale". Hey it worked PR wonders for an ex-prez.

[fr33domfightr]

I don't think a charge would be possible. After all, who was to say exactly what was in the pipe? It's only a photo, where's the actual physical evidence??


FF

[RonPaulFanInGA]

I don't think a charge would be possible. After all, who was to say exactly what was in the pipe?


I don't know. Maybe the sheriff has witnesses?

[angelatc]

http://www.theagitator.com/2009/02/01/a-letter-id-like-to-see-but-wont/



Here’s a crazy thought: If I can smoke a little dope and go on to win 14 Olympic gold medals, maybe pot smokers aren’t doomed to lives of couch surfing and video games, as our moronic government would have us believe. In fact, the list of successful pot smokers includes not just world class athletes like me, Howard, Williams, and others, it includes Nobel Prize winners, Pulitzer Prize winners, the last three U.S. presidents, several Supreme Court justices, and luminaries and success stories from all sectors of business and the arts, sciences, and humanities.
More at the link.

[Wendi]

Wouldn't they have a pretty hard time in court proving that picture is actually evidence of illegal activity? I know around here, it's not considered paraphernalia unless there's something illegal in it... which can't be proved by that photo...

[JVParkour]

I just think that retarded sheriff has let power get to his head...

Call me Mr. Miami Vice, I drive a porche, arrest people for drugs, and used to live in Florida...BLAM!

[amy31416]

When will one of these guys stand up, not apologize and push for legalization?

It'd be nifty if Phelps would, especially given his trainer's connection to the RP movement.

Dammit.

[Liberty Rebellion]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gav61lYnY-W3nlJteKSkTVKT6buAD9649UMG0

Good luck getting those charges to stick. :rolleyes:

[gls]

I'd love to see it. The more they continue to press the "Top notch Olympian smokes pot" story the better, IMO.



"The bottom line is, if he broke the law, and he did it in Richland County, he's going to be charged," Cowan said.


This sheriff is apparently an idiot (big surprise). Possession is what is illegal and therefore there's no basis for any charges.

[mediahasyou]

how can this be evidence when the photo could have been easily photo shopped?

[Mesogen]

He has confessed to the "crime" in the national media.

[Bruno]

When will one of these guys stand up, not apologize and push for legalization?

It'd be nifty if Phelps would, especially given his trainer's connection to the RP movement.

Dammit.

+1

Sponsorships be damned.

[tsopranos]

“A Letter I’d Like To See (But Won’t)”...from the Agitator's blog (http://www.theagitator.com/2009/02/01/a-letter-id-like-to-see-but-wont/).


Dear America,

I take it back. I don’t apologize.

Because you know what? It’s none of your goddamned business. I work my ass off 10 months per year. It’s that hard work that gave you all those gooey feelings of patriotism last summer. If during my brief window of down time I want to relax, enjoy myself, and partake of a substance that’s a hell of a lot less bad for me than alcohol, tobacco, or, frankly, most of the prescription drugs most of you are taking, well, you can spare me the lecture.

I put myself through hell. I make my body do things nature never really intended us to endure. All world-class athletes do. We do it because you love to watch us push ourselves as far as we can possibly go. Some of us get hurt. Sometimes permanently. You’re watching the Super Bowl tonight. You’re watching 300 pound men smash each while running at full speed, in full pads. You know what the average life expectancy of an NFL player is? Fifty-five. That’s about 20 years shorter than your average non-NFL player. Yet you watch. And cheer. And you jump up spill your beer when a linebacker lays out a wide receiver on a crossing route across the middle. The harder he gets hit, the louder and more enthusiastically you scream.

Yet you all get bent out of shape when Ricky Williams, or I, or Josh Howard smoke a little dope to relax. Why? Because the idiots you’ve elected to make your laws have without a shred of evidence beat it into your head that smoking marijuana is something akin to drinking antifreeze, and done only by dirty hippies and sex offenders.

You’ll have to pardon my cynicism. But I call bullshit. You don’t give a damn about my health. You just get a voyeuristic thrill from watching an elite athlete fall from grace–all the better if you get to exercise a little moral righteousness in the process. And it’s hypocritical righteousness at that, given that 40 percent of you have tried pot at least once in your lives.

Here’s a crazy thought: If I can smoke a little dope and go on to win 14 Olympic gold medals, maybe pot smokers aren’t doomed to lives of couch surfing and video games, as our moronic government would have us believe. In fact, the list of successful pot smokers includes not just world class athletes like me, Howard, Williams, and others, it includes Nobel Prize winners, Pulitzer Prize winners, the last three U.S. presidents, several Supreme Court justices, and luminaries and success stories from all sectors of business and the arts, sciences, and humanities.

So go ahead. Ban me from the next Olympics. Yank my endorsement deals. Stick your collective noses in the air and get all indignant on me. While you’re at it, keep arresting cancer and AIDS patients who dare to smoke the stuff because it deadens their pain, or enables them to eat. Keep sending in goon squads to kick down doors and shoot little old ladies, maim innocent toddlers, handcuff elderly post-polio patients to their beds at gunpoint, and slaughter the family pet.

Tell you what. I’ll make you a deal. I’ll apologize for smoking pot when every politician who ever did drugs and then voted to uphold or strengthen the drug laws marches his ass off to the nearest federal prison to serve out the sentence he wants to impose on everyone else for committing the same crimes he committed. I’ll apologize when the sons, daughters, and nephews of powerful politicians who get caught possessing or dealing drugs in the frat house or prep school get the same treatment as the no-name, probably black kid caught on the corner or the front stoop doing the same thing.

Until then, I for one will have none of it. I smoked pot. I liked it. I’ll probably do it again. I refuse to apologize for it, because by apologizing I help perpetuate this stupid lie, this idea that what someone puts into his own body on his own time is any of the government’s damned business. Or any of yours. I’m not going to bend over and allow myself to be propaganda for this wasteful, ridiculous, immoral war.

Go ahead and tear me down if you like. But let’s see you rationalize in your next lame ONDCP commercial how the greatest motherfucking swimmer the world has ever seen . . . is also a proud pot smoker.

Yours,

Michael Phelps

[speciallyblend]

oooo the horror , dammit phelps i told you just eat the dam brownies. Geez you try to tell someone what to do and they still are hittin da bong;)


this whole thing is kinda funny. i guess pot smokers win winter gold and summer gold;) i guess they can sit on the couch with their gold medals and enjoy some munchies and just imagine they won the gold:) or did they forget they won the gold!!

[speciallyblend]

I just think that retarded sheriff has let power get to his head...

Call me Mr. Miami Vice, I drive a porche, arrest people for drugs, and used to live in Florida...BLAM!

New show POOL WATCH, the lifeguard is the sheriff busting the swimmers in the locker room for hittin da bongs:)

[JeNNiF00F00]

http://www.rcsd.net/bio.html This is the dood wanting to press charges. Hes a jackass. I hate living here.

[libertarian4321]

Who says there was anything illegal in the pipe? It might have been tobacco...

[nobody's_hero]

He'd better get a jury trial.

[Zuras]

No one is going to be charged for anything. PR stunt.

[asimplegirl]

Look...though I do not agree with some most of these dumb as turds drug laws...I don't think he should be above anyone else. If its the law, its the law. Period. Until that changes that means celebrities, even the type that have earned that status are included in getting reprimanded for this behavior, or should be, atleast.

[Andrew Ryan]

Look...though I do not agree with some most of these dumb as turds drug laws...I don't think he should be above anyone else. If its the law, its the law. Period. Until that changes that means celebrities, even the type that have earned that status are included in getting reprimanded for this behavior, or should be, atleast.

an unjust law is no law at all.
..

[speciallyblend]

Look...though I do not agree with some most of these dumb as turds drug laws...I don't think he should be above anyone else. If its the law, its the law. Period. Until that changes that means celebrities, even the type that have earned that status are included in getting reprimanded for this behavior, or should be, atleast.

south carolina sucks, move to colorado. the east coast is just plain backwards in their thinking.

in colorado it would be a 15 dollar fine for the bong. they cannot prove its marijuana unless they have an eye witness. It is a stunt by the s carolina police .


the whole thing is a joke. maybe phelps should of drank himself to death with alcohol then this wouldn't be an issue. just another reason why marijuana should be legal just like alcohol.

alcohol kills far more people in 1 YEAR then all the illegal drugs and legal combined in several yrs!!!!


the drug war is a joke like alcohol prohibition.
you want to remove crime,then regulate like alcohol ,END OF STORY END OF DEBATE, unless you can show me gangs pushing alcohol on a large scale and crime running legal alcohol???