PHELPS A TOKE-ING OF POT LEGALIZERS' AFFECTION

Bo(i)ng! The photo that might change not just our image of Michael
Phelps, but drug laws, too.

THE PHOTOGRAPH of Michael Phelps smoking pot through a bong might
indeed change attitudes.

Not toward Phelps - who'll survive this controversy swimmingly - but
toward marijuana.

Instead of forcing him from his pedestal, Phelps' recreational use of
marijuana will no doubt push the pendulum further along the road to
liberalization of pot laws.

As well it should.

The very fact that the Olympian athlete hasn't been deep-sixed by
some of his sponsors shows how tolerant our society has become of the
recreational use of weed.

If this were 10 years ago, "I'm sure most of his commercial
supporters would drop him like his hair was on fire," said an
official of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

While some major sponsors remained silent as of yesterday afternoon -
including Kellogg's, which put Phelps on Corn Flakes boxes - so far,
Speedo, luxury watchmaker Omega, Hilton Hotels Corp. and the makers
of the sports drink Pure Sport have issued statements of support.

Corporations are anything but altruistic. If they thought that the
Phelps incident would cost them customers and cash, they'd abandon
the Olympic swimmer in a heartbeat.

They didn't.

"The baby boomers who run corporations do not see cannabis use as
demonstration of turpitude," said Allen St. Pierre, NORML executive director.

(By way of disclosure, I haven't smoked marijuana in 30 years - not
that I disapprove. It's just that wine is my drug of choice.)

The fact is that 75 percent of the public favors decriminalization
and the medical use of marijuana, St. Pierre said.

And 46 of 50 states have reduced possession from a felony to a
misdemeanor, including Pennsylvania.

It's a long way from the demonization of "reefer" to the popular
Showtime series "Weeds," about a suburban mom who sells pot.

It's a long way from Bill Clinton supposedly declining to inhale to
Barack Obama openly asserting that he had: "That was the point," he said.

And marijuana use by likable, wholesome athletes such as Michael
Phelps can only advance the evolution of attitudes.

It helps that Phelps reacted perfectly when the photo of him inhaling
through a bong at a private party got international exposure last week.

He gave the mandatory mea culpa while pointing out that he's still
young and susceptible to the missteps of youth.

Frankly, if my sports heroes have to fall from grace, I'd rather they
do it with a bong than with a bullet or a blow to a spouse's face.

If Phelps screwed up, good for him. All of us ought to give ourselves
the opportunity to screw up. And if we don't do it while we're young,
we might do it when we're older and have a lot more to lose.

But increasingly our society doesn't view what Phelps did as screwing
up - unless you have hero worship and millions of dollars in
endorsements to lose.

The evolving opinions about marijuana, based on evidence of its
relative harmlessness, are reflected in generational attitudes,
NORML's St. Pierre said, using his own family as the example.

His 88-year-old grandmother thinks pot is a corrupting, evil
substance; his 63-year-old mother favors decriminalization and
medical access but not legalization; he's 43 and "totally keen on
taxation and control."

"Sad as it's going to be to watch my grandmom's generation
attritiate, with her goes the 'reefer madness' mentality," St. Pierre said.

And with the world's economy in the tank, the $7.7 billion spent on
prohibition enforcement - according to a Harvard economist - surely
could be put to better use.

As for Phelps, I doubt that his reputation will be seriously
tarnished. If anything, it has a warm polish of realism, and the
incident just might help propel changes in our drug policies.

Not to mention it might help explain Phelps' extraordinary appetite.

"People have wondered how he eats 21,000 calories a day," St. Pierre
joked in a reference to the notorious weed-induced "munchies."

"Now we know."