This just in, from last night’s SNL…
Seth Meyers to Kellogg’s: “Every one of your products sounds like a wish a genie granted at a Phish concert.”
Priceless.
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As hilarious as that skit was, dropping Phelps is just smart business. Nothing more to it.
Sometimes there are just times when all you can say is, “L.M.A.O.!” This is one of those times.
How consistent is your behavior?
http://digg.com/celebrity/s_behavior_is_not_consistent_with_the_image_of_Kellogg
Funny skit (not so much the “oh really, Kellogg’s?” part, although it did start me thinking he might have a point), but I particularly liked “you can smoke pot after you’ve won 12 gold medals for your country.” Maybe Wheaties saw this coming, since Phelps had a small meltdown after the previous Olympics (DUI). I swam competitively in Jr and Sr High School, and a couple of years in college, with summer leagues thrown in too. And some triathlons the last many years. “Lots” of training, and simple “judging” – either you’re faster than the other person, or you’re not – no one to blame but yourself. Whether it’s doing something illegal or immoral (cheating on a spouse, and therefore any children as well), you gotta think “who am I going to hurt or even just disappoint if I do “such-and-such”. But he wasn’t thinking – imagine, a 23-yr old not thinking things through? Even someone you’d “think” was as disciplined as Mike ? After I won an event or two, you start to think you’re a little special. But not too special in my case, because after awhile I realized I was just an “average” good swimmer – but you get a feel for what’s it might be like to be winner at his level. But when you do something few people ever do, winning like he did, or like landing on the moon, you can be tempted to think you deserve a break – I can do this or that – I’m a little above the others. Well, the only thing he deserved was the medals he won, all the endorsements companies were willing to give him, and all the accolades – but also the consequences of making a bad decision. (Lift glasses high here) Here’s to Mike that he’s learned another lesson, and that we never do anything we’d sorely regret (Lord knows I’ve made my share of boo-boos). Cheers!
i agree with the first comment on here.. and i liked “pink slipped” michael phelps LOL
Kellogg may live to reget this one. People I know will not buy from them because of this. We are tired of 25% of the population controlling our behavior. This was political not moral. Alcohol doesn’t seem to be a problem for them and neither does cocaine when they are partying. I wonder if Kellogg executives use their corporate credit cards to hire call girls the way the bank executives do?
There are much worse drugs in the pharmacies today and yet, even if it helps people with the pain of disease, the crazies stand on their principles, at least until they need it. Funny how they change their minds when they want something.
Phish? I thought the broke up, like, five years ago. Way to stay timely SNL.
Sorry Camper but you sound like Geraldo Rivera who the past couple days has said, “Come on, we all did it once, what’s the big deal. He shouldn’t be penalized for it”. Sorry to say I have never done any of the aforementioned “CRIMES”. It’s against the law, period. You can try and justify it or make EXCUSES, but they are just that, an excuse for bad behavior.
I am proud that Kelloges has stepped up to the plate and told yet another spoiled athelete/celebtard that breaking the law has consequences. Now if all the other companies would follow suit there would be less acceptance of pitiful excuses for role models.
I’ll give SNL some credit when it is due. This was pretty funny compared to 90% of their skits. Funny cause it is very true. As for Phish, Pasta, I’ve never been a fan (Trey’s voice is irritating and I can just get over it when listening to Oysterhead) but us stoner’s don’t all jump into whatever is popular and new. We are the last people to do that. Hell, many of us are still groovin’ to the oldies from the 60’s.
Funny skit, although I totally agree w/Les Paul above. It’s not like Phelps is on Death Row; he lost an ENDORSEMENT deal. Whoop-de-friggin’-do. As for “I GET to party with Michael Phelps”, I’m thinking that sort of worshipful attitude is, well, dickish in itself. Phelps may be a fairly awesome swimmer, but he doesn’t glow in the dark or anything.
And another thing: We may all have smoked pot at one point or another–and I’m not convinced we “ALL” have–but I’m assuming that Kellogg’s checked out this bit with their lawyers, and noticed that Phelps was contractually obligated to abstain from doing this stuff while on their payroll. Period. He’s not representative of every 28-year-old Best Buy employee living in Mom and Dad’s garage, m’kay? He’s his own little cottage industry, and as such, he needs to suck it up. “It” NOT being a load of weed.
“This was pretty funny compared to 90% of their skits.”
I’d hate to see the other 90%.
Thank you, Aleric.
Funny that alcohol doesn’t bother them when, I don’t know, it’s not illegal? I’d like to think Kellogg’s would drop him for breaking any law. What if he’d raped someone? Law is law.
Anyway, I hate Michael Phelps. Maybe I’ll start eating cereal and buy Kellogg’s just to support them from people dingbat enough to boycott them for having some kind of moral response to something. (Well, sure, I can eat that much!
)
Hilarious! Although I agree with Beige, he probably signed a contract to abstain from “inapropriate” behavior and Kellog’s is still a provate company so they can do what they want. Exit question though: Why the hell isn’t pot legal already?!
The bottom line I guess is that it’s illegal. If he got caught doing some other smallish illegal act such as shoplifting, he’d have consequences to pay as well with his sponsors and contracts. And there might be people who’d say, “Hey, who didn’t steal a bar of candy once when they were a kid?!”, but he broke the law in public and it doesn’t really matter what everyone else has done. Just a really sad and stupid move all the way around.
Personally, I was concerned that he was on the road to trouble when he was partying in Las Vegas with the Hugh Hefner type crowd after the Olympics were over. :-p
Happy Camper wrote: “I wonder if Kellogg executives use their corporate credit cards to hire call girls the way the bank executives do?”
You’re barking up the wrong tree there, Camper.
Kelloggs is a community based company that goes back to the turn of the century. They’re located Battle Creek, Michigan. B.C. has a population of less than 60,000 people and most of them work for Kelloggs or Post Cereals.
For those not aware of Michigan demographics, western Michigan is incredibly rural. Battle Creek and Grand Rapids are the largest cities out there, but they’re surrounded by farms and teeny-tiny towns. Western Michigan is also highly conservative. Folks take their religion seriously out there, and as a result, so do the businesses.
While Kelloggs might be a worldwide corporation, they remain close to their conservative roots. Google the executives, most live right there in dinkyville along with their employees.
The WK Kellogg Foundation is one of the top 10 philanthropy organizations in the US, it is almost entirely funded by cereal profits. They spend most of their money right here in Michigan. You can’t visit a hospital, art museum, college, or library without tripping over at least 3 things they’ve donated. They’re part of what makes Michigan run, despite our idiot political leadership.
Now all of that info doesn’t mean that Kellogg executives aren’t charging lap dances to the corporate AmEx account, but it makes your assumption far less likely.
I’m seeing something very dangerous happening in recently. I’d call it class warfare, but this is something more than what politicians have been peddling for decades. This is far worse and more pervasive, saturating news media, television entertainment and movies.
The plot goes a little like this: If you gross more than $250,000 working for a corporation, we’re supposed to believe that you’re the Spawn of Satan, Paris Hilton, and Forrest Gump, all rolled up into one evil package. CEO’s all attend ivy league schools on daddy’s money. They partied the entire time instead of studying. They lucked into a preemo job instead of earning it. They all have 4 dead bodies in their front hall closet and a hooker in the guest bedroom.
That’s rarely true. If we started a poll amongst Deceiver readers, we could all name at least 3 corporations headquartered in our respective states which are nothing like the Wall Street Banks. They’d outnumber Wall Street Banks by about 8 to 1 if I guess right.
We’ve got to get over this flawed thinking, that all corporations are evil. WE are Corporate America. Corporations put jobs in our economy, paychecks in our pockets, money in our retirement funds, wings on our hospitals, books in our libraries. WE do all this through our labor, through our employeers, for our employees.
I’m not normally a conspiracy theorist, but there’s a lot of coincidence behind the recent rise of the Democrat party and the destruction of Corporate America’s reputation. And the more we hate the private sector, the easier it is to vote in big government stimulii.
I know your comment was meant to be flippant, Camper; but it’s a sign of something dark.
And it scares the hell out of me.
Minnow..wow..you said everything I have felt for a while, but with so much more elequence than I could ever muster. Thank you.
What Lisa said, Minnow. Plus a side of fries.
Pasta- count yourself lucky if you don’t watch SNL. And btw, I was including skits for their entire run and not just the recent crap.
But no, it’s not as funny, or funny at all, if you don’t burn. And yes, Kellogg was right to drop him. He’s an idiot to put himself in that situation. However, this story is a non-story and is only worthy of laughing at and not to make any serious comments on society and business ethics.
Oh, I’m quite sure the FSM burns as well. If not, the FSM certainly created herb for us to enjoy.
Minnow – I will add a shake to those fries. Companies like SC Johnson come to mind.
Aleric. Marijuana is a drug, like alcohol and tobacco. The drug companies have a hard time controling it and profitting from it and that’s why it’s off of the market, you know like White Lightin’ and alcolol. Get a grip.
Minnow, when my son was born and needed open heart surgery, I was going to find my own donors. The surgeon told me that unless I was 100% sure of their “habits” I needed to trust him. At that time CMV neg. female blood was the safest in the blood supply and that’s what he wanted. I trusted him. My point is to a man or woman you don’t really know anything past or present about the individuals in a company. You only know their mission statement. Now is everyone evil, I hope not. I believe not. You scare way too easily. The world isn’t all dark we just need to get rid of the thieves. They do way more harm to our world then anyone else.
One more comment. MP got fired for marijuana. Koble Brant raped a women in a hotel room and then the court raped her. He’s making millions off of his rape. (Iwill never watch him play but the country doesn’t mind.) There’s the dark side.
Great post, Minnow.
Nobody is obligated to have Michael Phelps endorse a product and as one of the millions of people who has never used drugs, it annoys me to no end the “sophisticated” crowd rolling their eyes at heaven forbid holding anyone to any sort of standard. Is it any wonder we get these public officials who don’t pay their taxes and wonder why kids seem out of control?
Minnow you nailed it so squarely that it made my heart ache. Keep up the good work.
The hypocrisy here isn’t really coming from the corporate sponsors, it’s coming from society as a whole. Anyone ever bother to consider why kids don’t listen to anti-drug crap? Because they spend years and years trying to convince children that if their lips ever touch a bong that they’ll transform into a jobless, violent, schizophrenic, abusive, terrorist. Then when the kid finally gets around to smoking a joint, and none of the above happens, he is forced to conclude that ALL the info he got about drugs must be bullshit. Yeah, that’s REALLY helpful to the children in the long run.
Then you’ve got the morons in sports who will strip the medals from a snowboarder for smoking pot, actually having the balls to refer to it as a ‘performance enhancer’, but they won’t make any real efforts to stamp out rampant steroid use (something that actually DOES influence performance). By the way, anyone out there who has actually smoked pot think that it enhances ANYTHING beyond your craving for greasy fast food?
So why make such a big deal out of all this? Because the anti-pot Nazis know that these guys are living, breathing examples of their complete and utter bullshit. They want you to believe that if you smoke pot, you’ll never amount to anything beyond a burger flipper. Just watch their anti-drug commercials if you don’t believe me. Guys like Phelps prove that they’re full of shit, so he has to be destroyed.
Just remember kids – don’t smoke pot or you’ll never amount to anything. Except a record setting Olympian. Or you’ll be a millionaire celebrity who beds gorgeous women for 20 years, only to become Governor of California. What, our last 3 Presidents in a row were confirmed drug users in their pasts? You don’t say. You folks get my point yet?
Hurricane, I don’t care if you want to shoot heroin straight into your eyeballs. But if doing it costs you a contract worth more money than most people will earn in a lifetime – and someone had explained this to you before you signed on the line (I mean they must have right?) then he’s an imbecile. And since I was on that whole SNL being “non-timely”, I was going to ask why they didn’t bring up Mark Spitz but I didn’t think anyone would really get it. It seemed beyond dated. Turns out they did.
Scott F. -
When I was a kid (back in the day when the buffalo were plentiful), I didn’t get the anti-drug/anti-smoking/anti-drinking talks from my folks. They were better examples. My dad smoked like a chimney, and I hated the stink. A lot of the anti-drug propaganda I did read made mention of the changes to your body chemistry (DNA and such), and I didn’t want to do that to myself. When I started working in a bar band at 21, I saw what overindulgence looked like – I chose not to drink. Lastly, I tend to be broke a lot, so I didn’t have the money for any of it. I DO have a couple vices (my DVD collection, Disneyland, etc.) but at least they’re legal.
The pro athletes (Kobe Bryant was mentioned) make a -load of money for their teams/corporations, so the “morals clauses” tend to be winked at or fought in court. Phelps is an amateur – not a member of a pro team. Phelps probably – probably – didn’t make nearly as much as a pro athlete would. So the loss of the endorsement is no surprise.
After all of this, it should probably be noted that Kellogg isn’t breaking their contract with Phelps, they’re not renewing it. While it has the same outcome, it’s not like they felt it necessary to run out and immediately cut him.
Other than that, he did something illegal (whether it should or shouldn’t be, it is right now) and, in the always wise words of Pasta, he was an absolute imbecile to do something in public with a bunch of camera-phone-laden college students around.
And, to the dear Deceiver community, you guys make me so happy. Minnow, that was amazing and so true. To everyone else, some of you have given me comfort in realizing that I’m not the only 23-year-old who is capable of thinking and was responsible as a teenager.
Moderator- you don’t have to publish this comment- but jeez how the hell do you read some of this self-important s— without puking your guts out?
I hope you’re getting paid a LOT.
Strawberrygirl, you and I are in the minority. No drugs. I don’t even trust the drug companies not to kill me. I work in the medical field, now there’s a horror about what drugs can do. Lawyers aren’t making up these law suits. My sister has heart valve damage from one of the drugs. The people who marketed the drug knew it could damage heart valves. Fortunately hers wasn’t as bad as some. But consider this the DR. who prescribed this drug, prescribed it to a person who had had open heart surgery. Congential defect fixed as an adult. If he knew, he committed malparctice. If he didn’t know he committed malpractice. He either didn’t pay attention or he’s not up to date on the drugs he gives his patients. Either way I wouldn’t go to him for help.
I agree with ScottF.
Self important me ?!? Why because- oh yeah all that stuff I’ve said. It’s easy when you’re as awesome as me.
“Moderator- you don’t have to publish this comment- but jeez how the hell do you read some of this self-important s— without puking your guts out?
I hope you’re getting paid a LOT.”
Michael? Is that you?
Minnow – While I can agree in principle with what you say about big corporation the leaders of those companies have helped to spur those negative feelings. The financial sector is getting billions of our hard earned money to bail themselves out of some very stupid business decisions and yet they continue to put their names on ballparks, have extravangent internal promotional parties, buy/hold on to corporate jets and pay their top Exec’s millions how can you not get a sense of bitterness?
Why does a CEO get million dollar bonuses when their company needs the government to keep them a float? I am a believer in the free market economy and as a believer I think these companies with their spoiled executives need to go belly up.
Dave – both of my parents were alcoholics, which is why I rarely touch booze in any form. The point that needs to be made is that overindulgence in ANYTHING is bad for you. Should the fact that some people overindulge mean that none of us should drink at all though? No. If you spend your whole life avoiding something you enjoy, then that thing still controls you. Some people drive like morons and kill themselves or others – are you gonna trade in your car because others don’t know how to drive?
We should also have the courage to objectively evaluate drugs on a case-by-case basis. The simple fact is that while marijuana is illegal, it causes a lot less societal destruction than tobacco or alcohol, yet both of those products remain legal. Keeping marijuana illegal is as naive and ineffective as prohibition ever was – and it’s having all the same negative repercussions (making a class of citizen who wouldn’t otherwise be a criminal a criminal, creating a new niche for organized crime and gangs to fill, violent crime,ect.).
Should kids smoke dope? Hell no. But they shouldn’t be drinking or smoking cigarettes either, which happens to be the law despite it being legal for adults. See how easy that was?
In a free market the CEO wouldn’t get a bonus if his company did poorly. When did it turn around that a CEO got a bonus while tanking his.her company. Some of these people work for 6 mos., cost people their jobs, drag the company down, and then when they are fired they take 7 figure pay offs and leave the company. I’d like a job like that. Then I could retire after working 6 mos.
Actually Camper, in a free market, you’re free to collect whatever bonus your board of directors votes to give you.
Is it fair to collect a bonus when your company is barely treading water? Maybe not, but leave it up to the shareholders and the market system to correct that error. Allowing the government to set compensation of executives simply gives them a foot in the door towards setting YOUR wages.
And actually D–, I agree with you. Let the market spank companies who waste their assets. But unfortunately, government tampers with the system all the time.
Take the automotives for example. I’ll be the first to admit that they’ve made a lot of stupid decisions. But they’ve also been told what to produce, in what ratios, had their distribution networks limited, told how to price items, limits on fuel sources… I could go on forever with all the many ways government has handicapped the industry. And government does little to protect American automotive interests (unlike every other auto producing nation) so they’re competing on an incredibly uneven playing field.
So after the US government has handcuffed, blindfolded, and cement shoed the Big 3, shouldn’t it be responsible for at least tossing it a floatie?
I’m not saying I agree with the bailout, I wish GM and Chrysler had stormed out of the capitol and told the House to shove it, because there is no such thing as free help from the government. But I can understand why they took it.
I understand the bitterness D– and truly, I share some of it. But I also understand that one crooked CEO (or 10) does not reflect all industry. There are good companies out there which don’t make the evening news broadcast.
My concern is that there are now those in power who are going to foster that bitterness as a way of taking control of market forces. Rather than rant at the big executive who just purchased a ruby studded porta potty, we need to channel our attention at those taking advantage of our anger to limit freedoms. Wall Street isn’t my biggest concern, Pennsylvania Avenue is.
Michael Phelps is an American Hero. He stood tall and made America proud at the Beijing Olympics. This is how America treats its heroes, we forget all of the hard work Michael Phelps did to achieve his task, we forget the pride we felt with the each gold medal, we forget how Phelps helped America to be competitive against a Chinese when they planned on winning all of the gold’s, we forget all of those things and hang a man for smoking a glass pipe at a college party. It is time that we as a country stand up for the rights of the individual, it’s time we stand together with our neighbors and take collective control of our destinies. Write a congressman or a senator any of them; imagine the weight of millions of emails calling for a change in policy. In this moment in America anything is possible just Google the email address of your representative and send him or her short email. It will take 10 minutes but then you have taken responsibility for change. A senator considers each email as representative of 2 thousand voters.
SunflowerPipes – I would strongly disagree that Phelps is an American hero. He saved no lives and made no real contribution to the success of this country. I am proud of the US regardless what happens at the Olympics. Was I excited to see him win? Sure, I used to race competitevly so watching someone win like he did was cool but hero?
He signed the contracts and he knew the consequences. I like to smoke pot myself, rarely ever drink, but since smoking it could have legal repercussions which would lead to financial repercussions and put my family at risk I don’t smoke it, period.
and don’t kid yourself, Phelps competed because he wanted to reap the rewards of winning not to give you the warm and fuzzies
Pasta- I believe we are in agreement: Phelps is an idiot. Now on to my eyeballs….the one area I haven’t yet stuck a needle in. Thanks for the advice. Wish I read your comment yesterday, it would have made the presser last night more tolerable to watch (as long as I shot my ears up with smack as well).
I agree D—, “hero” is one of those terms people fling around willy nilly nowadays.
Michael Phelps did something admirable but that does not make him a hero. Life would still go on in the same exact way if Phelps had never entered a pool.
Hurricane- You mean the press conference? Nah I didn’t watch it either, I was at work. Besides I really don’t give a sh!t what that guy says. I’m done with the political stuff. (And yet I send dozens of useless links to the tips thing anyway. Weird.) I didn’t vote for him. And I don’t think he’ll be the end of the U.S.
And for some reason when ever someone says “heroin”, the only thing I ever think about is how Topol pronounces it in “For Your Eyes Only”. He says it like “hairoween”. It always makes me laugh. It doesn’t help that it was just on the other day I guess.
Take that Ted Nugent!
I thought that Paris Hilton WAS the Spawn of Satan! j/k
Good points Minnow. And while I do agree entirely with you that coporations are not evil in and of themselves as the Leftists say (corporations are not sentient entities, as we were told in management school) the leaders who control them are and the big ones sometimes forget what they are representing, i.e., what you said about how we the workers are actually the corporation. Case in point, IBM CEOs cutting employees’ always-promised compensation and benefits in every way possible, while still raking in stock options and bonuses for themselves that could feed a small country for a generation. But yes, you are correct.
I get your point Scott and totally agree. I did not regress straight to heroin the minute after I tried smoking pot (in my youth, a lonnng time ago!). At that time the Generation Gap was the dominating sentiment, and it sure made the older gen look even more like liars.
Mention someone famous getting busted for Pot smoking and all the pot heads come out of the wood works to cry that it should be legal. But of course they forget that thier view is not shared by more than 80% of the population. Nor the fact that if you ask an addict his opinion on his drug of choice I am sure they will all say that all drugs should be legal.
I am going to point to the Netherlands who decriminalized pot as well as a lot of the hard drug users in the late 70’s early 80’s. After 20 years of supporting and treating these people they are now rethinking their mistakes. The cost of keeping these people alive and treating them medically for all those years is starting to weigh on the purse strings of those governments. So now the laws are slowly going back into effect to curb the influx of more non producing citizens who are nothing but a drain on those who work and pay taxes.
I meant useless political links.
Aleric- yeah drugs should be legal. It’s a true conservative (and libertarian) point of view.
As for the Netherlands, the main issue that is crippling their social services is an influx of immigrants that arrived due to their lax immigration standards. Now they are on the gubment dole and so the country is rethinking a lot of their socially liberal policies, not just drug decriminalization. One will note that even though pot is decriminalized there there has not been a noticable increase of users that the anti-pot crowd screamed there would be.
Keep your laws off my body! Whoops, that only works when I want to have the right to kill my unborn babies, huh?
Pasta, you say you are done with the political stuff but the constant mistakes and missteps by BHO and his adminsitration will keep bringing you back into the political fold. It’s like crack only without the herpes and AIDS that goes along with it though you will feel just as dirty and used.
Sorry Hurricane, but the whole rationale of the “Experts” was that this would reduce peoples urge to use drugs since it was demonized. I question your information when the reports show that every year they spend more and more money to keep the ever aging, non working population of addicts. But these same people are able to pay for the drugs they do every single day.
Sorry I consider myself a true conservative and no where does it state that you have the right to supercede the law because you think it should be a different way.
I can’t Hurricane. I just can’t. I’ve decided to lock myself in a room with nothing but a mattress, some shackles, a bucket, and a TV that plays nothing but “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne” over, and over. When I think that’s funny, I’ll know politics is out of my system.
Given that I have a genetic heart condition and was lucky the few times I smoked pot not to go straight into cardiac arrest, I hope you guys will forgive me for being a little less pro-MJ legalization as some. My daughter, who may have the same condition, will be getting the ‘pot will kill you’ lecture from both me and her doctor – no hypocrisy involved.
And you’re right, Minnow – Michael Phelps isn’t a hero, just a talented and successful athlete. If that were the only criterion for being a hero, you’d have to include Kobe Bryant and A-Rod in the hero class. *eek*
Pat Tillman is one of the only heroes from American athletics — not Michael Phelps, no matter what warm fuzzies he created.
And maybe it’s late and I’m missing something, but how would legalizing drugs be a conservative stance? Libertarian, certainly. I would even say liberal. But I’m missing the conservative link??
Kristine – I see the link that if conservatives believe in smaller government and less government intervention in our everyday lives then they should be for less drug restrictions…free markets and all that.
The problem with that logic is that the conservative politicians have actually been hand in hand with the liberal politicians in making the federal government larger and more invasive.
Aleric- I’m not really following. The Netherlands, as with the US, spends more and more every year for benefits to the aging population as well as for those that don’t work. “when the reports show that every year they spend more and more money to keep the ever aging, non working population of addicts” – huh? Keep them where? And no, the whole rationale for legalization isn’t to reduce the use. May be a part of it but hardly the whole reason.
“Sorry I consider myself a true conservative and no where does it state that you have the right to supercede the law because you think it should be a different way.” – where are you going with this? Who said conservatives want to have the right to supercede the law? Changing it when we think the law is mistaken is a whole other matter however. When it comes to a vote, vote no if you wish, but when it comes to herb, like gay marriage, it is only a matter of time the laws change.
MC Mom- your medical condition has little or no bearing on whether you can support legalization. I can understand if you have other reasons why it should stay illegal but wishing it so just because you cannoty enjoy it would be quite selfish and illogical.
Pasta- I wish you the best but you know you will never find it funny. It’s just not possible. It’s about time to come to terms and just stand up and say: “Hello, my name is Pasta and I’m a political junkie.” The sooner you admit it the sooner you can deal with your addiction.
Someone explain to me the hypocrisy of a country that is simultaneously struggling its ass off to make cigarette smoking illegal and smoking marijuana legal. Are they not basically unhealthy for the same reason?
And Hurricane–first off, let me say I normally adore your comments, so be tolerant with me disagreeing for a second
–it’s hard to draw a line. Say marijuana is harmless as tobacco and deserves to be legal (then leave cigarettes alone–oh, and side note: I am NOT, have never been, will never be, a smoker . . . of anything). Okay. But what about the addicts who don’t care about marijuana? What about cocaine, heroin, . . . meth? Should we make all these things legal just because someone wants them to be? All of these things screw with a user’s body, particularly meth, and leave him or her useless to society. But they WANT to do it. Where do we draw the line at letting people do what they want? (I understand slippery slope is a dangerous argument to try, but stick with me here.)
Don’t say we’re in a free country and people should get to do what they want and accept the consequences. For example: Maybe I want to drive 80 MPH everywhere. It’s legal in California but illegal here. Why? Because the roads are too narrow and too twisty to safely drive that fast. It’s irrelevent what I want. The government has made a decision that 55 is tops, and I’m obligated to abide by it. People who ignore the law and go 80 MPH get ticketed for it. It’s the American way. I could try my best to get that law changed, but I would hope that every effort would always fail. Why? Because a lot of people would be hurt and even killed if it were legal to go 80 on these roads. Just the same as if drugs began to be legalized. Also like drugs, there are people who drive 80 no matter what the speed limit is; if the speed limit were changed to 65, there would be people who would still do 80 (like people who would do ‘worse’ drugs if pot were legal); and if the speed limit were 80, there are people who would do it who never would have dreamed of doing it before it were legal. And I tell you what, but the county’s road fatality rates would skyrocket.
Is it just possible that this would happen with the drug situation, too? I think Aleric does have a point. Before we rampantly go implementing things, maybe we should look at countries that already have, and see if they succeeded or failed. The US may be spending a lot of money on our aging, not-working population, but as Aleric says, they aren’t addicts. Addicts need special care and special care means extra money. The drug problem needs more serious thought than “Let’s just legalize, man.” (Not that I’m implying this is your philosophy.)
Okay, I’m done being disagreeable. Thanks for your patience.
The prohibition on drugs doesn’t work, will never work, couldn’t possibly work. Ever.
Okay, I know I’m odd.
I like the idea of athletes actually being penalized for doing things that are against the law. Imagine that. If I got caught doing pot, I’d be fired in a heartbeat (I’m a teacher). I don’t understand why the law doesn’t seem to apply to actors and athletes.
The thing I have a problem with is that we still see athletes who do harder drugs on cereal boxes. We need to have a universal policy here– if Kellogs is going to kick out Phelps, they need to do the same with ALL their unlawful athletes.
Sounds like some empty cereal boxes.
Hurricane, I appreciate your point about my stance being ’selfish and illogical’ and this would be true – if I really wanted to smoke pot but wasn’t allowed (I don’t), and if I only cared about my own well-being and not anyone else’s. I have to agree with Habanada – where do we draw the line at letting people do what they want?
And, like Aleric and Habanada, I think we should look at how well legalization has worked elsewhere before dashing headlong into implementing it ourselves. A lot would have to change in our society before legalization would really work – not least of which the current criminal justice system.
The voters in my home state passed a referendum last November essentially decriminalizing possession of an ounce or less of MJ. However, MJ is still a contraband substance in the state and it’s still a reason for expulsion from schools. As a result many high school students have been expelled for possession, probably because they thought it was now legal. While I appreciate that the ‘Yes’ voters thought they were just emptying prisons of minor drug offenders, the referendum as written is causing all sorts of unintended and negative consequences around the state.
Habanada- I’d argue MJ is less harmful than tobacco. For every study that says otherwise there are studies to refute those. I am basing my comments on personal experience with both. I quit tobacco due to the physical effects it caused as well as the smell issues. Smoke a cigarette in a room and you can smell it for a few days or longer. Smoke a joint and the smell will be gone in a few hours. Lord knows my mother would say my place smelled of tobacco when I smoked indoors 3 days prior but she couldn’t smell the aftereffects of herb a few hours later. I will defer to her schnozz any day of the week.
BTW- You can be a productive member of society and still use coke or heroin or other illegal drugs. Happens all the time. The illegality of it drives people to pay higher prices and commit crimes to supoort their habits and end up using low quality products which cause additional harm. It’s clear the war on drugs is an abject failure. New options should be considered. Less punishment and more treatment is the direction I’d like to see things go. Sure, there will be a percentage of bad folks still doing bad things but as it stands now we are basically punishing the vast majority due to the problems of a few (typical liberal PC behavior btw). But me smoking in my house is not the same as me driving 80 down the street. As long as I am not putting anyone else at risk the government has no business in what I am doing.
And again, where are the “keep your laws off my body” crowd in this? I find it quite sad that those who scream for less government intervention in their private lives so they can kill their babies are so silent on the government’s intervention with me sitting at home smoking a fatty and watching reruns of Saved By The Bell (7-9am on TNT for those who are interested).
The money spent in more tolerant countries is a drop in the bucket of their overall expeditures. Again, they spend more on social services demanded by their lax immigration policies than they do in dealing with users. And yes I’d argue that those on the government’s dole in this country are addicts in a way. They are dependant on the government to pay their bills and take care of them. People who willingly put themselves in that position are 100 times worse in my book that somebody addicted to smack. At least the heroin addict has an excuse to be what he is.
Now, back to my regularly scheduled smoke break…….
MC Mom- while looking elsewhere to see how things have fared in other countries in perfectly fine it is more important to look at the failures and waste the current policies have had in our country. A simple look at the history of why pot was made illegal and a review of the failures enforcement has caused compared with the positives of pot legalization (or at the very least, decriminalization) will show the errrors of our current policies.
As for the referendum and the troubles it may have caused. Unfortunately, this is what happens when things are done halfassed. State says yes but the Feds say no….What to do? As for the HS kids: They most likely would have been busted regardless and simply used the exucse of ignorance to try and cover for them. Sounds like a failure of the school administrators to properly do their job as well as due to the plain stupidity of the students caught. I’m quite sure the referendum had an age limit on it right?
But I agree with you 100% that the criminal justice system needs to be changed. They don’t want it legal as they need more inmates to justify their requests for more and more dollars to build and run the jails. A clear look at the corruption of the prison system in California and the control the unions have on the State show the uphill battle that needs to be fought.