Hand-wringing over Michael Phelps' pot use misplaced

Gold medal champion

Shortly after the headlines blared the news that Michael Phelps smokes pot comes the shrill cry of, "but what about the children?" 

What about the children? 

Michael Phelps has already established himself as a questionable role model for children by signing an endorsement deal with junk food titan McDonald's. 

Is the question parents are asking whether or not kids will try to emulate every aspect of their hero's behavior, or are they simply asking, "How will I explain this to my kids with a simple catch phrase?" 

The image of Phelps sucking on a bong undermines the pat and simple "Winners don't use drugs." The line about pot smokers being lazy doesn't seem to apply either.

How about "Work hard and you can achieve anything?"  Well, that one still applies.  Phelps' record-breaking accomplishment hasn't gone up in smoke.

 If Phelps' pot use comes up at the dinner table, just ask your kids if they think that marijuana would help Michael Phelps to become a faster swimmer.  Ask them what they think would happen to his career if he were put into jail, because marijuana's most dangerous trait is its accompanying risk of incarceration. 

Of course, kids say the darndest things, and if your kids are particularly clever, they might ask about the deliniation between drugs and alcohol.  A photo of Michael Phelps hoisting a beer would raise none of the same brouhaha as the one of him hitting a bong, but Mommy, they told me at school that both marijuana and alcohol could impair an athlete's performance.  So why is one okay and one bad?

"Because one is against the law and the other isn't," a parent could answer. 

"But Mommy, does that mean my hero Michael Phelps is going to go to jail?  Because isn't that what happens to people who get caught breaking the law?"

"No dear, he probably won't, because even though marijuana is illegal, nobody will bother to prosecute him because most people don't think it's a very big deal.  In fact, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama have all admitted to smoking pot."

"But mommy, if most people don't think it's a big deal, and all of these successful people have smoked pot and turned out okay, then why does it have to be illegal?"

This conversation could get so complicated so fast. 

The real question is, why do we have to use children to voice our concerns?  Is Michael Phelps failure as a "role model" really the central issue that needs discussion, or is it marijuana itself -- its legal status, and its impact on society?

More pressing than an incriminating photo of a celebrity is the fact that one out of every six federal inmates is in federal prison for marijuana, and the fact that there are more people now in federal prison for marijuana offenses than for violent offenses.  Eric Schlosser reports that under the laws of fifteen states, you can get a life sentence for a nonviolent marijuana offense, yet the average sentence for a convicted murderer in this country is about six years. 

So should marijuana be dealt with as a criminal matter, or as a public health matter?

Before you answer, ask yourself how you would want the situation handled were your own child to find him or herself in Michael Phelps' place, committing the same sort of error, acting in the same "youthful and inappropriate way."   Michael Phelps' offense will probably be dismissed as a youthful indiscretion, but many others in this country will not be so lucky.  Under current federal law, it is still possible for a marijuana user to get the death sentence for a nonviolent first-time marijuana offense. 

Many say they want current marijuana laws stringently enforced, but these same people would be likely to change their minds were it their own child facing life in prison or even death.

So perhaps the right question to ask is "What about the children?"