Michael Phelps And His Bong - We've All Gone To Pot - Millennial Money with Cliff Mason

BIO

Cliff Mason is the author of Millennial Money. He is the Senior Writer of CNBC's Mad Money with Jim Cramer, and has been that program's primary writer, in cooperation with and under the supervision of Jim Cramer, since he began at CNBC as an intern during the summer of 2005. Mason was the author of a column at TheStreet.com during 2007, which he describes as "hilarious, if short-lived." He graduated from Harvard College in 2007. It was at Harvard that Mason learned to multi-task, mastering the art of seeming to pay attention to professors while writing scripts for Mad Money. Mason has co-written two books with Jim Cramer: Jim Cramer's Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Rich and Stay Mad For Life: Get Rich, Stay Rich (Make Your Kids Even Richer). He is 100% responsible for any parts of either book that you did not like. Mason has also had a fruitful relationship with Jim Cramer as his nephew for the last 23 years and will hopefully continue to hold that position for many more as long as he doesn't do anything to get himself kicked out of the family.

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Feb.06

2:52 PM ET

Friday, 6 Feb 2009

Michael Phelps And His Bong - We've All Gone To Pot

Posted By:Cliff Mason

Topics:Olympics | Stock Market

Michael Phelps inhales from a bong
Source: News of the World
Michael Phelps inhales from a bong
Oh my god, Michael Phelps was photographed smoking pot from a bong!

How could this Olympian, this national hero, have let us down so completely?

What's the world coming to?

But seriously, what the heck is the world coming to when we're supposed to feign outrage at and disappointment at what's basically normal, to say nothing of NORML, adult behavior.

Depending on who's numbers you believe, somewhere between 33% and 47% of Americans over the age of 12 will admit to having smoked marijuana at some point in their lives. Throw in the people who won't admit it to a survey, and we're probably looking at more than half of this country's adult population.

So who exactly is supposed to be outraged here?

Who is so offended that Phelps has to lose an endorsement deal and get suspended from doing what he does best, swimming, for three months? It's not like he was found taking performance enhancing drugs. I can see why the swim team might suspend him because they're worried he might get stoned and start swimming in the wrong direction, but calling this misconduct or misbehavior is not just hypocritical, it's stupid.

The sad thing is that if the guy just stood up, defended his behavior as being perfectly fine, and said "legalize," then the press would come down on him even harder, probably in stories written by people who, at some point in their lives, had their lips on a bong, too. I've made the case for legalization or decriminalization before, so I won't repeat myself.

Debbie Phelps' Endorsements Doing Fine

Let me just say, though, that if a law is unjust, you should break it.

This is not like Plaxico Burress shooting himself in the leg with an unregistered handgun. That puts Phelps, along with the vast majority of American college students, in the long tradition of civil rights activists going all the way back to Henry David Thoreau.

What do you think, let me know write me at

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