Tuesday morning during our regular news meeting, one of our intrepid reporters pitched a story about a court decision dealing with medicinal marijuana.

A variety of local "experts" would surely have something to say about the Supreme Court decision ruling that restrictions on the sale and production of medicinal marijuana in Canada are unconstitutional.

"You should ask Michael Phelps what he thinks," came the inevitable comment.

Phelps, the U.S. Olympic swimming hero, is being pilloried worldwide by pious media types after a photo surfaced of him deftly handling a bong at a student party at the University of South Carolina.

Of course, newspapers, websites and TV stations breathlessly reported the news as if Phelps was some sort of wild deviant caught murdering puppies for fun. His multimillion-dollar endorsement deals were sure to crumble. His mother would be ashamed. What type of role model would he be to the dozens of Americans who care about swimming in non-Olympic years? The horror of it all.

Then a funny thing happened.

Phelps apologized, said he wouldn't get caught in such a compromising situation again, and that was that.

The International Olympic Committee said it wasn't a big deal. His major sponsors said it wasn't a big deal. They weren't thrilled, but his mea culpa was deemed sufficient.

Oh sure, the detractors keep trying to tear Phelps down, each day trying to get someone to intimate that he is Beelzebub and Hitler rolled into one, but it just won't take.

Why? Because many people just see a 23-year-old kid, who has trained harder than most of us can imagine to become the best in the world at what he does, blowing off a little smoke.

And try as they might, the lunatic fringe can't convince people that what Phelps did will mean the end of proper society as we know it.

Another colleague sent me this Wednesday morning, from Tunku Varadarajan, a professor at the Stern Business School at New York University and opinions editor at www.forbes.com:

"In the hierarchy of life forms on this, our earth, the British tabloid journalist lies somewhere between the hagfish and the dung beetle: However, a story Sunday in the News of the World (proprietor: Keith Rupert Murdoch) has made me scratch my chin and wonder whether we are, in fact, being a tad unkind to the dung beetle.

"The paper's great coup was to lay its grubby, Little-England hands on a photograph of Phelps with his mouth pressed firmly into a glass pipe, or 'bong.' The story's pseudo-declamatory opening line (a tabloid art form, in itself) was: 'This is the astonishing picture which could destroy the career of the greatest competitor in Olympic history.' Given that Michael Phelps' career would have remained blissfully undestroyed had the paper chosen not to publish the photograph, one has to marvel at the amoral audacity of the News of the World: in purporting to 'report' on the potential harm to Phelps' image and career from having smoked cannabis, the newspaper was, in fact, 'perpetrating' that very harm."

Nicely put.

Athletes should not be put on pedestals (parents should be the real role models for youngsters). Athletes are human beings, prone to mistakes and lapses in judgment like the rest of us. Phelps wasn't burning a fattie in the middle of a children's festival. And if you try to use his plight as a lesson for your kids ("you see Jimmy, if you smoke up, you'll get reefer madness and feel shame like Michael Phelps") you might get back a question like "how come he can do that and still be the best in the world?" or "how come the leader of the Free World admits he has done it?"

I'm not advocating the use of marijuana. It's not my thing and never has been. But if people need it to battle medical conditions, I'm OK with it. And if a 23-year-old at a frat party has his hands on a bong, I'm not going to express outrage.

Philip Wolf's column runs regularly in this spot. To comment on his opinion, write to: letters@nanaimodailynews.com