Michael Phelps on hot seat for controversial photo

Anyways, I don't feel like looking it up right now but I know I can't have a bong where I live. Maybe it's the community, or maybe it's the state. Just do a google search for yourself really.
 
Mike, the issue is not the legality of his action but how it will effect his endorsements. If he were a rock star\rapper it would be different. I think whoever released the image was a creep who must have sold the image, but that is the chance he took.
 
Betrayer0fHope said:
Anyways, I don't feel like looking it up right now but I know I can't have a bong where I live. Maybe it's the community, or maybe it's the state. Just do a google search for yourself really.
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I did, and you're wrong, at least in a sense.

http://www.reason.com/news/show/130844.html
Still, paraphernalia bans do raise serious definitional issues. “Anything can have a dual use,” notes New Orleans defense attorney Bill Rittenberg. “There’s nothing that can be used as a smoking or snuff accessory for tobacco that can’t be used for marijuana.” While a giant plastic bong may seem like an obvious example of drug paraphernalia, people do use other sorts of water pipes, as well as dry pipes made from materials other than the conventional briar, meerschaum, or corncob, to smoke tobacco. Buchanan maintains that an item listed in the federal ban is illegal “regardless of what you do with it, regardless of whether some idiot actually goes and puts tobacco in it.” But that interpretation would make hookahs—water pipes traditionally used to smoke sweet, fruity tobacco mixtures—illegal. Even Buchanan concedes that rolling papers, which can be used to make cigarettes as well as joints, are not necessarily drug paraphernalia. The targets of Operation Pipe Dreams did not include any convenience stores that sold rolling papers, even though many of those end up wrapped around marijuana. Likewise, vaporizers, which are not listed in the federal ban, can be used with marijuana or with legal medicinal herbs (not to mention the fact that in California and 12 other states marijuana is a legal medicinal herb).

Law enforcement officials themselves can have trouble telling the difference between legitimate smoking accessories and illegal drug paraphernalia, as illustrated by the travails of the Smoke Signals Pipe and Tobacco Shop in Dover, New Hampshire. Police first raided the store in October 2001, seizing various items they identified as drug paraphernalia. The store’s manager, Susan Hargrove, ultimately pleaded guilty to a single charge of selling drug paraphernalia, resulting in a suspended $1,000 fine. As part of the plea agreement, the government returned most of the seized merchandise, including glass pipes, a glass chillum, various water pipes, and metal one-hitters (small, narrow pipes), saying they were OK to sell.
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John99 said:
Mike, the issue is not the legality of his action but how it will effect his endorsements. If he were a rock star\rapper it would be different. I think whoever released the image was a creep who must have sold the image, but that is the chance he took.
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I know. I'm the OP remember? :D
We were discussing just that when the question came up if he did anything illegal or not, and by the picture alone, he has not.

But I know what you mean. With sponsorships and endorsements like this, image is everything.
I'd have been real particular with any contract of sponsorship if I were Phelps.
I would have made them put a clause that they cannot pull my sponsorship for anything short of a positive drug test.
 
ah....

as has been stated, it is difficult to convict on something like that even if he admitted to it but either way it is a slap on the wrist and not worth the resources to do anything about it compared to what he can lose through endorsements. i dont agree with it if he did because everyone makes mistakes.

incidentally, it is not illegal to be under the influence of drugs or have drugs in you system. Although other factors come in like being a danger to yourself or other while high and of course operating machinery such as cars etc. that can be cause for arresting someone.
 
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visceral_instinct said:
What a fucking pile of puke. He doesn't owe it to the public to be a perfect human being.
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Well the only thing is that he endorses "speedo" brand and they have a motto of healthy living... doing drugs isn't healthy living to society now is it?
 
The IOC and professional sports leagues have slowly managed to turn physical competitions into a ridiculous fantasy that is embraced by the majority of our population. Some people seem to believe that their “role model delusion” is more important than observing the physical accomplishments of the best athletes in the world. I would really like to see the creation of professional sports leagues that is only about the sports that the athletes are paid to play. I couldn’t care less about what an athlete does when they are not engaged in physical competition. I don’t care if an athlete is doing illegal narcotics or steroids. The only thing that I care about is their physical performance. I want to be entertained. Everything else is irrelevant.
 
laladopi said:
Well the only thing is that he endorses "speedo" brand and they have a motto of healthy living... doing drugs isn't healthy living to society now is it?
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Actually, it is good for society, better than an estimated 800,000 arrests a year and the cost and anguish of being seen as a criminal.
 
Contrary to what I was told over and over again while growing up, it appears that some winners do in fact use drugs. Or grow up to be president. Hmm...
 
This is ridiculous. The guys an amazing athelete, one of the best ever. What he does to relax is his own business.
 
He should be stripped of all his medals, because he is a drug user and using drugs in sports is illegal.
 
draqon said:
He should be stripped of all his medals, because he is a drug user and using drugs in sports is illegal.
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Right. It's important that we not let people use drugs, otherwise they will turn out to be losers. Despite all evidence to the contrary.

If the guy can do drugs and still be a champion, what's the problem?
 
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