As predicted by most of you in the comments, there will be no charges against Michael Phelps:
Michael Phelps will not face criminal charges after a photo of him apparently smoking marijuana from a pipe sparked an investigation in South Carolina.
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said Monday that he didn’t have enough physical evidence to press charges against the 23-year-old swimmer after the November party near the University of South Carolina in Columbia.
“We had a photo and him saying he was sorry for inappropriate behavior,” Lott said at a news conference. “He never said, ‘I smoked marijuana.’ We didn’t have physical evidence.”
Lott defended the investigation, calling Phelps “an American hero … but even with his star status, he is still obligated to obey the laws of our state.”
I would have loved to have an inside scoop on the conversations between the Sheriff and the DA.
Lee from NC
I know that the SC Governor has said that the great state of South Kakalakee* does not need any damn stimulus money, by God. But even so, this whole "investigation" was a ridiculous waste of tax money.
*Disclosure-I live in North Kakalakee, so I can say that.
Jimbo
Forget talking with the DA, I’d have like to have heard the conversation with his campaign manager…
Zifnab
I’d love to hear what Joe the Plumber has to say on this issue.
Stuck
I would be relieved, or not, if I cared.
cleek
rats.
i was hoping this would blow up and galvanize public sentiment in favor of legalization / de-criminalization.
KCinDC
What about the other people at the party who got arrested only because Phelps was there? Are they still being charged?
Austin Dewby
Where’d my comment go?
JL
@KCinDC: Yesterday, I went on the South Carolina paper and there was not any indication that those charges were dropped. The paper did say that no one remembered seeing Phelps smoke pot.
bootlegger
@cleek: For this to happen Phelps would need to grow a pair and not give in to hypocrisy. I mean the guy’s one of the most successful athletes ever and he smoked pot, clearly that should be the story instead of this nonsense about role models and symbolism. If anything, the role model is that parent’s should stop freaking out about kids hitting the bong. Freak out about their grades, or their lack of motivation, but if your kid is successful no one should care how much weed the kids smokes.
Krista
Not enough physical evidence to press charges, but evidently there was enough to cause this shitstorm in the first place and cost him those sponsorships. Charming.
Probably never going to happen in our lifetime. Hypocrisy is beyond rife in our society. "Society" is shocked when someone is caught screwing around on his or her spouse, but how many North Americans have screwed around on their spouse? "Society" is appalled when a celeb makes a sex tape, and then we go and consume absurd quantities of porn. And yes, "Society" is oh-so disappointed when a public figure gets caught with a bong, even though 83 million of us have tried weed at least once.
So until we’re all willing to drop the facade and lose the hypocrisy and the judgmental attitudes, nothing is going to change.
Comrade Dread
Sheriff: Yeeeeehowdy, we gonna git those Phelps boys now!
Prosecutor: Along with a ton of press, Roscoe. Make the country look real good. Tough on crime.
Rest of country: We’re all f***ed economically, facing foreclosure and bankruptcy, and you’re spending your f***ing time and money chasing down the country’s greatest Olympian and his college buddies for smoking weed three months ago? Honey, where’s my pitchfork?
The Moar You Know
@cleek: I have very reluctantly come to the conclusion that this is never going to happen.
@bootlegger: Our last three presidents have. My governor is on camera doing so back when he was a bodybuilder. Nothing has changed. I’m starting to think America is OK with that.
DanF
"[A]n American hero"? Really? The man can swim like a mother-f***ing riot, but "American hero"? Sports star, Olympic Champion!, swimming icon, etc., but hero?
Where’s my bong.
cleek
you may be right.
sigh.
bago
Moar: Seattle has decriminalized the stuff, and is getting our police cheif installed for Drug Czar.
Life is less stupid.
Andrew
This sheriff is the psychopath that has an APC with a belt fed .50 machine gun. Because you never know when you’re going to have to mow down a crowd of civilians.
tavella
Ah, that last bit explains much: the ploy was to arrest anyone he could and get them to testify against Phelps, but if none of them saw anything… well, I’m a bit surprised that none of them were willing to make it up, but given they weren’t, you can’t get to the next step of charging Phelps.
Catsy
@bago:
In the interest of accuracy, it’s not that Seattle has decriminalized weed, it’s that it was made the lowest law enforcement priority:
D-Chance.
Of course, eight other people NOT named "Michael Phelps" are still up Shit Creek due to the American Hero’s actions…
mak
Wrong. They are up the creek, if at all, due to the actions of the D-bag who took the picture and sold it.
SixStringFanatic
Charging an "American Hero" due to a picture snapped at a party = National sh!tstorm
Charging a handful of anonymous college kids based on same photograph = business as usual.
Same as it ever was.
The Tim Channel
All is well. It’s ok that the cops went nazi on the other kids, storming their residences like Kristallnacht, so long as the hero says he’s sorry and the cops back off him.
Bullshit. Nobody deserves to have the sanctity of their lives intruded upon because they smoke dope. End of story. The fucking WMD’s just aren’t there. Call off the freaking storm troopers already.
Enjoy.
James Hare
The really crazy part is that there has been much more coverage of this than Phelps’ DWI. If you believe marijuana does harm, at least Phelps was only harming himself. By driving drunk, he could have potentially injured or killed other people. Which is really worth all this handwringing?
Oh well. I guess I should just accept that I live in a crazy country where our priorities are so fucked we won’t just grow up and tax the shit out of a weed folks like to use. Take California for example — the importation duties and taxes on marijuana would probably go a long way to fixing their deficit without hurting everyone, but it’s not even argued.
All so more folks use drugs in this country than in the Netherlands.