Attitudes Changing About Atheletes And Pot

CNN: Potheads Support Phelps

While there is nothing new to a story about a famous athelete getting caught with drugs, attitudes clearly seem to be shifting about the recreational use of Marijuana by anyone from atheletes to executives. Everyone has read or seen reports that Michael Phelps, the exceptional Olympic swimmer, was caught in a photo smoking a bong at a party. The consequences range from Phelps loosing commercial endorsements, to the local police in the city where "the crime" occured trying to arrest him.
What a joke. What arrogant bluster. Even the former police chief of Seattle Norm Stamper, now an anti-prohibition activist has slammed both the County Sheriff in North Carolina but also told Kellogs that he would not use their products anymore for dropping their endorsement of Phelps.
Across the globe in Japan, another similar scandal erupted when a number of Sumo wrestlers were banned from the sport also due to pot use. Wow; can you imagine a four-hundred-pound Sumo stoner with the munchies? Now let me say this: Japan is a much more rigid society than the United States, and traditionally Sumo has been linked to a quasi-Shinto type of spiritual ceremony of pureness or such stuff. I can almost understand that.
But U.S. atheletes are under no such constraints. In fact, nobody could ever claim that pot is a performance enhancing drug.
More reasonably, one could argue that the use of small amounts of pot could unburden the athelete of performance anxiety, provide effective pain relief, and negate the need for any pharmaceutical anti-depressents that half of society seems to use these days. Let's face it, atheletes are into peak experiances, and recreational use of non-addictive herbs like pot, or even mind-expanding mushrooms fit that category. An argument could be made that with sensible use, these natural drugs could help produce not only a better athelete, but a more open, understanding and aware individual.
So Come on Michael Phelps! Be true to your self! While you have said publicly that you have learned from your mistakes, you have not specifically mentioned pot smoking. Why not just come out as a spokesman for decriminalization of pot? Why not bring this discussion into the same televisions in the same homes in America that cheered for you at the Olympics? Are you not still an American hero?