No, your argument is working against you.
Phelps’ life is disrupted only because someone decided to publicize it, someone else in power decided to make an issue of it, and others decided to use him as an example.
You wrote:
“Phelps’ life is disrupted only because someone decided to publicize it, someone else in power decided to make an issue of it, and others decided to use him as an example.”
No. None of this could ever have happened if Phelps didn’t smoke pot. That’s key. Period.