Is Michael Phelps caught smoking marijuana that bad ????

[DinoRadjaLives]

Today I saw the picture of Michael Phelps with a bong to his mouth, I also saw many headlines saying what a shame this is and how horrific it will be for his career. Am I missing the boat when I think that this isn't that big of a deal. I mean the guy is in his early twenties and was out partying. He wasn't driving drunk or with a prostitute or even beating his wife/girlfriend. He was smoking a little weed at a party.

In todays society there are so many athletes that get arrested for some real offenses and are not even mentioned, but this kid somkes some weed and it is the end of his career. Last nights Superbowl MVP Santonio Holmes has been arrested twice for domestic abuse, Ray Lewis allegedly participated in a shooting.

I think that the press is making a big deal out of this and that the kid should not be judged so harshly.

[Chris]

I think its about as bad as the majority of the press is making it out to be...pretty much a joke.  Yeah, it is getting a lot of coverage, but so does **** looking a little too chubby, or one of the Jonas Brothers swearing, or Tom Brady being fed by a supermodel, like he was a little baby.

This will blow over in a day or two, and will just provide some nice jokes for the late night TV crowd. 

[Evantime34]

This exact thread has already happened, and been locked. I wanted to put my two cents in before it got locked but everyone pretty much covered every angle already. To recap the last thread these were most of the opinions.
1. Smoking weed isn't that bad
2. Weed is Illegal and he's damaging his image
3. What about the children?
4. It doesn't change my opinion he's a 23 year old kid.

I personally agree with 1 and 4.

[Roy Hobbs]

As noted above, this thread was already locked once.  There's no need to rehash the same arguments, which will inevitably lead to a string of "legalize it" posts.

Locked.