Controversy is once again surrounding Michael Phelps for his "youthful behavior." Phelps was previously charged with a DUI when he was nineteen, and was sentenced to probation. Now, the fourteen-time Olympic gold medalist could potentially go down in a blaze...and it probably won't be glorious.

A photo recently surfaced showing Michael Phelps smoking marijuana at a college party in Columbia, South Carolina. The photo is reportedly from November 2008, and now the media is in a frenzy. Some are saying that he should have his endorsement contracts cancelled because he is being paid to be a role model to children and young adults, while others are saying that he is just a kid himself at twenty-three, and that he is just trying to have a good time.

Myself? I side with those who say "Leave him alone!" If he is in violation of some sort of conduct clause in his contact that's one thing, but to burn him at the stake for being a poor excuse for a role model is quite another. True, Michael Phelps is a role model and/or idol to millions of people, but he is a human being, not the water god that he is made out to be. What he does on his own time is his business. And it's not like he was doing anything terrible! He was enjoying himself with friends, and not harming anyone. Let me rephrase that...people that he thought were friends, because someone at that party had to shop the photo.

That is what burns me up, or as Peter Griffin would say, "...grinds my gears" about this whole thing. He was in a private setting, having a private moment. But, with the advent of technological advancement comes the demise of privacy. I understand that marijuana is an illegal substance (and that is a whole other issue), in fact, a South Carolina sheriff has apparently stated that he may press charges against Michael Phelps if he finds that Phelps was smoking marijuana in Richland County, but if everyone in the United States who had ever smoked marijuana at a party or in their homes was arrested because a photo of them committing the act surfaced somewhere, then the topic of overcrowded jails and prisons would be even more of an understatement than what it is now.