Let’s blow this thing way out of proportion

JoePa said Tuesday that the Pot incident is getting "blown way out of proportion." Paterno says the four students renting the apartment weren't there when the police arrived.

Which is consistent with what the Post-Gazette is reporting.

Police said no one was home when they responded to the incident shortly after 11 p.m. on April 25 at Nittany Apartments.

It also appears that the items that were "in plain view" were not as egregious as they originally sounded.

Penn State police confiscated marijuana residue and drug paraphernalia during their search of an on-campus apartment where four football players live.

According to a police report, other items collected from the apartment hours after the annual Blue-White spring game include hollowed-out cigars in the kitchen and a multi-colored pipe in a bedroom on a television stand.

So it sounds like whoever was smoking the wacky tobacy finished it off before the police arrived and apparently they must have smoked enough of it to set off the smoke detectors. Criminally speaking we're probably talking a slap on the wrist if anything but to whom I have no idea, is the "multi-colored" pipe enough evidence to pinch the resident of the bedroom? Can they get fingerprints off the "hollowed-cigars?" Where's a legal expert when we need one. With the frequency of offseason incidents occurring at Penn State lately I may have to hire a legal department here at TNL just to muddle through all the legal ramifications.

As for Joe's "blown way out of proportion" comment, well… I usually don't disagree with Joe but you've had three incidents of players smoking pot in the past year; I think it's time to send a message. Let's face it; whether or not anything comes of this legally, we know that someone in that apartment did smoke pot and enough of it to set off the smoke detectors. Let's not turn a blind eye to this, Evens got suspended for smoking pot last season, do the same for all four of these guys. Maybe some, or most, did not smoke any but they knew what was going on and should have tried to put a stop to it.