Just Plain Stupid

"Phelps Disciplined Over Marijuana Incident" - give me a break. What? Now the world's best athlete is being disciplined ovr using a performance dehancing drug?! Marijuana couldn't do anything but make you a worse swimmer. Negative effects of inhaling burning toxic gas aside (a.k.a. "smoking") it's probably one of the most innocuous drugs ever used from a pharamacological perspective (okay chocolate for the non-chronically obese probaly is a tad milder, tea likewise, although coffee is questionable and alcohol definitely much stronger).

I feel a rant coming on, so I'll cut myself short and simply end by observing that I don't see anything wrong with a octuple gold medal winner enjoying a smoke. If he's done it before (overwhelmining likely) it surely didn't cause (and evidently didn't prevent) his success, and if you are going to argue that it somehow degraded his drive, mental acuity, or physical health - well, I'd probably call you a nut. Not that there would be much, if any basis, to such a claim based on medical evidence (but that never stopped morons or politicians from making them).

Addition: The other quick thought I had was that the majority of athletes who use illegal substances to cheat rarely get penalized on this level (if at all - those in lucrative sports like baseball pretty much get carte-blanche even when it's common knowledge they pop steriods like a third-world traveler uses petol bismol) - either legally, professionally, or financially. People generally get in a huff over drugs (even when it is reasonable to do so) when the targets are athletes in random niche sports that Americans only give a damn about once every 4 years.