It's time to end the hypocricy. It's America's litte secret that people throughout the US smoke grass. It's time to legalize marajuana and regulate it in the same way we do alcohol. Since Michael Phelps is an adult, what he did is OK.
The truth of the matter is that alcohol is a far more destructive drug than marijuana. But alcohol is the drug of the Ultra-religious (and mostly Republican) morality police. Getting drunk is a conservative virtue. Alcohol is served at all the parties in Washington and any other event of importance. And advertized endlessly. And look at all the broken homes and drunk driving fatalities that we have in society as a result of our glorification of alcohol. If you drink alcohol and criticize Phelps you’re a hypocrite and need to look inside yourself before you criticize others.....or put more simply "just shut up."
Marijuana rarely causes or leads to addiction as the "Reefer Madness" crowd would have you believe. There are millions of occasional or even regular users who are contributing members of society and function responsibly in their lives.
Extreme use of marijuana or any drug is a problem for the person overdoing it. And we should treat drug addiction, from whatever source, as a public health problem and not a criminal justice problem. We could save huge amounts of money in the criminal justice system by decriminalizing drug addition. And we would save many lives of people who need treatment and don't get it.
And here's the clincher. If you make marijuana legal, we could tax it and generate billions of dollars in new revenue that we desperately need......
So END THE HYPOCRICY..... and Legalize marijuana NOW.