The IOC, USA Swimming and others may well have forgiven Michael Phelps for being daft enough to raise a lit pot pipe to his mouth and nose at a party last November - but the state of South Carolina may yet slam the swimmer with a criminal charge.

After a British tabloid paper ran a photo of the swimmer - a snap taken by another party goer at a University of South Carolina bash last year and at a time when Phelps was letting down his post-eight-Olympic-gold-medal hair - of the greatest Olympian of all-time apparently in the act of smoking marijuana, a South Carolina law enforcement official told local media that he would charge Phelps if he could prove the US Olympian smoked marijuana in his county.

"This case is no different than any other case," Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott told The State. Columbia, the South Carolina state capital, is located in Richland County.

"This one might be a lot easier since we have photographs of someone using drugs and a partial confession. It's a relatively easy case once we can determine where the crime occurred."

Phelps has apologised, the IOC and USA Swimming have said "silly boy - he remains a great champ - move on", while neither the University of South Carolina nor Columbia police will pursue charges, according to statements in the local media.

Possession of marijuana is a misdemeanour in South Carolina, punishable by up to 30 days in jail or a $570 fine, plus court costs. 

Beyond the law of the land, perception is often nine tenths of the law of life. As a role model for youth, fitness and health - all titles invited by Phelps by virtue of the vast financial deals he has benefitted from as a result of his and coach Bob Bowman's hard work - Phelps should have known better. There are issues of nature, ethics and education (in terms of an awareness of the damage done through the proliferation of the street drugs market) at play, say commentators in the US.

Those apply not only to Phelps, who clearly was not alone in the room where the picture was taken. The opportunist who sold the photo that made it into the pages of a British tabloid is likely to have been among those who stood giggling in the sway. The geography of publication may give a clue to the identity of the party goer and caster of first stones who made a fat return on the click of a lens.