NO MATTER HOW YOU SPIN IT, SMOKING POT IS STILL ILLEGAL

It's not so much Michael Phelps smoking pot that interests me. It's
the reaction to it.

And the reaction is a doozy.

By now you may have seen the photograph showing Olympic gold medalist
Phelps with his lips pressed firmly against a bong -- and every
indication is that he is inhaling.

Phelps immediately issued a public apology. He apologized (and
pleaded guilty) a few years ago, too, for driving while impaired.

We get it. He's sorry.

Newspapers and magazines have weighed in. USA Swimming, the sports'
governing body, has suspended him from competition for three months.
But the intriguing part is looking online at the comments people are posting.

I started a discussion on detroit.momslikeme.com to see what other
mothers might think. Some are outraged at the bad example, but many
are like the person who posted on freep.com, chastising a writer for
making too much of the situation and saying that, hey, President
Barack Obama has smoked pot. Should he not be president?

Other people are taking the opportunity to confess their own youthful
sins and play it off as something most every kid does.

Some people are focusing more on getting caught than getting high,
that smoking pot was stupid but doing it in a room of strangers with
camera phones and YouTube? Even dumber.

I have three words for people: It's not legal.

Colleges are not as forgiving as they once were, and if it were my
kid or yours instead of Phelps on that South Carolina campus, he or
she could be shipped home.

And your kid or mine isn't taking millions of dollars, thrusting
themselves into the limelight as someone we should look up to.
Someone we might aspire to be.

So when a cocky 14-year-old swimmer has to make the decision do I or
don't I?, they can look to Michael Phelps who has told them, twice
now, sure, try it. I did, and look at me.

There are countless kids in our middle and high schools who don't
have the team of people behind them to help them with limits (and
apologies) that Phelps does. Nor do they have the talent that makes
apologies easier on the ears.

But saying that it's no big deal? Tell that to the parent who has a
kid who first tried a beer. Then tried a joint. Then a pill. Then
cocaine. The kid who started off thinking a little pot wasn't a big deal.

It's always a big deal. Just ask Phelps' mom, Debbie, a middle school
principal. What a teaching moment she must be having.