Michael Phelps- Substance Abuse, the Problem That Won't Go Away

The problem of substance abuse has come to occupy the headlines, thanks to Michael Phelps, who was caught smoking marijuana. I think most of us believe that it is only losers that take to drugs, and the abuse of drugs is incompatible with a life of high-achievement. The story of Michael Phelps proves that sadly, it is not so.

Michael Phelps, who has won a record fourteen gold medals, was caught smoking pot/ marijuana when a newspaper in U.K. published a photo of him in the act. The picture was taken at a college party in South Carolina three months ago. Phelps acknowledged that the photo was true, and has apologised for his action. 

But consequences, once set in motion, can't be controlled- in the latest development, he has been handed a three month ban from swimming, and Kellog has terminated its contract to him. Bloomberg reports:

“Michael’s most recent behavior is not consistent with the image of Kellogg,” Norwitz said. “We’ve made a decision not to extend his contract.”

(Marijuana is an outlawed substance in Olympic sports. First-time offenders caught using it get a two-year suspension from competition. The drug is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, which sets rules and oversees testing for Olympic-level sports.)

Phelps has never has failed a drug test though he was once charged with under-age drinking and was sentenced to 18 months’ probation.

The story of Phelps is a sad one, and it is not hard to sympathise with him. 

Baltimore Sun defends Phelps, "baltimore's favorite son".  It asks what happened to Santiago Holmes of Pittsburgh Steelers, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Josh Howard and Chris Webber. Michael Phelps is apparently a victim of prejudice, but it makes a strong point:

"But we also know this is a country where more than 42 percent of adults say they've used marijuana at one time or another. That appears to put Mr. Phelps in the company of about 98 million Americans. Like it or not, it's a lifestyle celebrated in mainstream Hollywood movies and other forms of popular culture. And we seriously doubt the jails in South Carolina - or anywhere else - are large enough to house all the perpetrators."

It seems the President of USA, Barack Obama too has acknowledged that he had smoked pot, and this has not stopped him from being elected to the White House.

But some want Phelps punished, and with a vengeance: Stanton Peele in WSJ writes, 

"Today, not only is it illegal to smoke marijuana, but, most people are surprised to learn, the number of arrests for marijuana use and possession are increasing. In that bastion of liberal values and political views, New York City, close to 400,000 people were apprehended for marijuana misdemeanors in the decade ending in 2007. This was almost 10 times the number arrested in the previous decade. In 2007 alone, nearly 800,000 Americans were arrested for simple possession of marijuana, according to FBI statistics."

But here is the dismal truth,

"...83% of those arrested in New York City in the last decade were African-American or Latino. This occurred even though these groups, while underrepresented among college students, don't actually comprise the majority of drug users."

So arresting Michael Phelps would set a healthy precedent?

But what about Marijuana? Is it all bad? Well, BBC  reports  in its article about Rastafarians,

"Marijuana is regarded as a herb of religious significance. It is used in Rastafari reasoning sessions, which are communal meetings involving meditation."

The Rastafarians  describe Marijuana as the wisdom weed or the holy herb. It is seen as an aid  to heighten feelings of community and to produce visions of a religious and calming nature.

The  Rastafarians believe that marijuana use is sacred, and call it holy herb. They justify its use with biblical texts such as:

He causeth the grass for the cattle, and herb for the services of man.

-Psalm 104:14

Better is a dinner of herb where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.

-Proverbs 15:17

That might well be, but drugs are definitely dangerous. Yesterday, I read this article by Mike Atherton at Times Online  about Richard Austin, a promising all-rounder who played two test matches for West Indies in 1978 and then played three tests in Kerry Packer's rebel World Series cricket. He represented Jamaica in cricket and football and was a brilliant table-tennis player. 

How is Richard Austin today?  Mike Atherton writes,

"...he inhabits the Cross Roads area of Kingston in a triangle between Tastee, the patty store, the Texaco garage and Union Square, sleeping rough, begging and, when he is flush, getting high. He is high a lot of the time, says the man who runs the garage where Austin hangs out, but people are fond of him and enjoy his company, unless he is so high that he starts talking crazy."

Change.org  argues that the medicinal and recreational uses of marijuana should be legalised: the views both for and against can be culled from the numerous comments to that post.

Whatever it is, that the use of drugs such as Marijuana cause harm cannot be denied.

Marijuana.addiction info has a long list of the adverse effects of Marijuana, which includes-

• Altered motivation and cognition, making the acquisition of new information difficult 
  
• Paranoia 
  
• Psychological dependence 
  
• Impairments in learning, memory, perception, and judgment - difficulty speaking, listening effectively, thinking, retaining knowledge, problem solving, and forming concepts 
  
• Intense anxiety or panic attacks
  
• Enhanced cancer risk 
  
• Diminished or extinguished sexual pleasure.
  

The case of Michael Phelps brings to our consciousness the pervasive availability of drugs, and the temptation to try them because of permissive social mores. In the context of the India of today, we need increased social freedom, but there must be some limits.

But what the limits are, and how they are to be enforced is a dialogue that must involve  informed discussion, but not always- our various Senas have their own take on this. Whatever we think, it is better to accept that this mapping of social values is a fluid process in a changing landscape- any impatience will give way to tyranny and lawlessness.