Tim Lincecum Caught Smoking Marijuana; Is Anyone Really Surprised?

San Francisco Giants ace and former Cy Young award winner Tim Lincecum was recently stopped while driving in his home state of Washington and cited for possession of marijuana. According the to account of the incident the car reeked of marijuana and Lincecum handed over about 3 grams of pot and the pipe he had been using to smoke it. Now I don't mean to insult the guy, but based on Lincecum's appearance, I am not all that surprised that he smokes marijuana. Nor do I think a big deal should be made of it. Far from the having the muscled physique of many baseball players, Lincecum is gangly with long, unkept hair and doesn't exactly look like someone you would pick out of a lineup as being a professional athlete. Also, he plays for the San Francisco Giants, with the S.F. Bay Area being a mecca of sorts for marijuana lovers. Heck, right across the bay from where the Giants play, not more than 10 miles away, is an area nicknamed "Oaksterdam" due to its proliferation of medical marijuana dispensaries

I can't help but wonder if living in this area has contributed to Lincecum using marijuana in such an open way, as he was driving while smoking, rather than doing it somewhere away from prying eyes, his house, for example. Certainly I wouldn't go as far to say that he picked up the habit from being in the area, as that's probably not the case, but being in an environment where something is openly tolerated by many, and is even being considered for legalization by some state lawmakers, may distort a person's judgment to some degree.

Its unclear at this point how this will hurt him, he may receive punishment from the Giants, from Major League Baseball, as well as any legal charges that he is facing. It is a self feeding cycle, however in that the liberalness of the S.F. Bay Area that may have taken down his guard in so openly using marijuana may also shield him from criticism as he isn't likely to receive much disdain from Bay Area fans for this incident. If he happened to play for another team, in a different region of the country, however, this could have had much more serious consequences for him. In some states, using marijuana is taken as a serious offense. While he was stopped in Washington state, not California, the media backlash against him in California is likely to be minimal whereas in another part of the country his popularity among local fans could have taken a major hit.

Regardless of how the fallout from this incident affects him, I think that Lincecum is in need of a wake up call. He is twenty-five years old and was driving around smoking marijuana in his Mercedes while speeding. At the very least, what kind of message does this send to children who look up to people like him? It is his business what he puts into his body, I don't condemn his use of marijuana, but his decision to drive while using it is rather questionable. Is smoking marijuana while driving really any different than drinking while driving? Lincecum has unbelievable talent and may have let it go to his head, lets hope this incident brings him back down to earth so he realizes that he still needs to respect other people's lives by not putting them in the kind of danger he did with this incident.