michael phelps bong In today’s world, marijuana is so widely consumed that even famous people are getting in trouble for a little pot. To most of us, smoking weed is not a very big deal, but anything the media gets its hands on is gonna be chopped and twisted up to their liking. Some of the more recent headlines involving marijuana include the famous Michael Phelps story. This Olympic swimmer had nothing but good publicity before snapped a photo of him ripping a bong at a party. Now the whole world knows that this gold medalist is in fact a pot head. As I just said, this is not very big news to the rest of us. But Phelps will forever have to live in the public’s eye from now on just because of that one choice he made.

Marijuana in Today’s Culture

It is no secret that weed is used very often by many different people these days. The acceptance for this plant is only growing and many expect it to reach full legality some time soon. The problem with this is that some people simply do not understand the recreational use of marijuana that goes on under everyone’s nose. Because of claims made ages ago, people are still under the silly assumption that marijuana is more detrimental to one’s health than alcohol is. This is of course not the case at all. Alcohol has been shown to have many more long term negative side effects than pot does. In fact, the only thing that marijuana has been proven to hurt people over a long period of time with is short term memory loss.

When I hear that college athletes are using marijuana as a recreational drug, my reaction is much more positive than negative. If the alternative to this is a night of drinking, than I would gladly take my students smoking weed in stead. The thing is that alcohol has the tendency to make one crazy and out of control which is very different from the high that marijuana gives. Just sitting back and chilling with one’s friends are the worst things that can happen when one partakes of this plant. So you see, it is actually marijuana that is much safer than alcohol is. If I had to choose from my athletes drinking all night or smoking weed with their friends, I’d definitely choose the latter.

The Oregon Ducks Smoke Up

oregon ducks weedJust recently, the college football team the Oregon ducks has been caught having marijuana in their system. While this might be a big deal to some, it really doesn’t bother me in the slightest. There is a rule that states that athletes are not partake in this substance, but this rule is long outdated for a culture that uses marijuana daily. ESPN has been all over this story as of late and will probably continue to be for a long time. Marijuana is still taboo in the eyes of many because of years of misinformation. Even though it might be against the rules, I’d take my students smoking a blunt over a night of binge drinking any day of the week.