George Michael: Pothead

George Michael is facing heat for being seen in a documentary special smoking pot in Madrid, where pot is legal. People are shown drunk on TV every day in sitcoms and dramas and no one raises a fuss but Michael is seen with marijuana -- a legal substance in numerous countries and, after the midterm elections, probably a few states in the US as well -- and this is seen as an outrage? Please. Marijuana has unhealthy side effects, just like alcohol and tobacco and Vicodin and ice cream and numerous other drugs. But it's not inherently immoral or evil anymore than alcohol is inherently good. None of them are sins. Someone who smokes pot responsibly is much more admirable than someone who gets drunk and then drives. Mind you, Michael is an addictive personality and has been found slumped behind his wheel several times in the last few months, so he does have a problem. But it's perhaps an addiction problem and whether it's pot or alcohol or the most addictive substance known to man -- nicotine -- it's the addiction that's the problem, not these relatively mild drugs.