Free Phelps!

I don't do drugs. I don't do drugs of any kind. I don't do illegal substances. I don't do the legal ones either. The only reason I have any kind of drug would be because it was either prescribed, is an anti-inflamatory (I run) or anti-histamine.

I grew up in the "just say no" era. Where Nancy Reagan had her little news conferences and we were told to "just say no." Simple for me as I never said yes. I was convinced by people who I'm, sure had my best interest at heart that drug use was a one way street to unemployment, homelessness and all other manner of ill things. Indeed I was convinced that if one did drugs you just couldn't BE anything. Good reason to abstain.

Well somewhere between then and now an interesting thing happened. Public figures of all kinds started admitting to drug use. Weed in particular. Of course I had grown up with the images of Marion Barry of DC fame caught on tape getting high so such admissions were kind of unsettling to me. Eventually we got to the point where NY Mayor Bloomberg admitted to taking a toke and claimed to have enjoyed it. And this bloke got re-elected to office? Huh? So apparently then, one can inbibe and still be a decent human being, be responsible, run a billion dollar company and NYC. Wow.

Of course, the NYPD had made news stopping young black men on the street with no probable cause and either givng them summonses or outright arresting them for having small amounts of herb on their person. Hypocritical to say the least. It's not like people who drink alcohol are accosted while walking down the street. I mean drunk drivers kill people all the time and yet alcohol is freely available to anyone of legal age. Talk about double standards.

But it doesn't stop there. In Novemeber the US elected a president who admitted to not only taking a toke but of using the far more potent (and of no medical value) cocaine. Think about that for a minute. The commander in Chief is a known ex coke head, a former weed user and still has a cigarette habit. How are the people of the US and corporations, who undoubtedly gave millions in donations to the Obama camp, going to turn around and say that Phelps " is not consistent with the image of Kellogg,”

I suppose that since there aren't tapes of Obama or Bloomberg taking hits they can be passed on but it' OK to shit on Phelps because someone at a party decided it was a good idea to give a picture to a tabloid for some undisclosed sum (And they had better had made a profit since they have cost Phelps a nice coin).

To top things off "USA Swimming publicly reprimanded Phelps, temporarily withdrawing its financial support from him and barring him from competition for the months."

Why? Did his use of Sensimela give him an unfair advantage in the pool? No? Right. Oh perhaps there's some kind of "morality clause" in his contract (and I assume he has one). Oh it's for the kids! The poor kids who will soon enough learn that their government leaders have been taking hits and that the president of the US had a coke habit. When I was a kid I assumed that if you did such things you couldn't become mayor of a large city or president of the US. Now I'm grown and realize that such things not true. Same for the kids. Now is a nice time to have a conversation with the kids about that thing called privacy. How you ought not go selling pictures of your "friends" to newspapers and trashy websites. How some people choose to imbibe but in your house it is/ or is not allowed for whatever reasons.

Michael Phelps ought to have called out Bloomberg and the POTUS and discussed how weed use, like alcohol use is about moderation. Anyone can abuse either substance and make a wreck of themselves and their lives and unlike tobacco it won't send you to the hospital for treatment but rather you're likely to be sent home with the herb FOR treatment.

My message to Phelps: Grow a pair. Tell Kellogg to kiss your *ss and for future contracts make sure that the so called "morality clause" is stricken. Don't let these money grubbers who stand to make far more off you than they will pay you, dictate what you can and cannot do on your personal time cause they sure as hell won't let you dictate to them how to run their business.