Quote:
Originally Posted by Plan9
I don't want my kid to be looked after by a pothead teacher.
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Dude, I'm a teacher. I smoke pot.
I don't smoke in the classroom, or anywhere at school. I don't show up to work stoned, or burnt out. I don't spend my classtime referencing Cheech and Chong, or my grading and prep time using my students' homework for rolling papers.
I teach my students. They enjoy my lessons. They tell me they learn a lot. My administrative supervisors tell me that I get excellent results. Parents usually like me, and when they don't, it's usually because I am a tough grader, and demand that their kid pay attention and produce work, rather than slide by and get an A because they're in private school.
What on earth about the fact that I prefer to smoke a bowl rather than have a couple of drinks on my evenings off or on the weekends is at all relevant to my ability to teach my students, help them relate to the knowledge that I bring, and get them inspired about what they're learning?
As for the OP, I am (unsurprisingly) deeply in favor of legalization. There's no reason it should be illegal, and every reason that (as Plan9 said), it should be legal, taxed, and regulated. I think the fact that it will still be illegal under Federal law is of negligible impact. State law enforcement priorities will shift away from going after pot growers, sellers, and smokers as a goal in and of itself. If it happens to be used some to put pressure on suspects in other, graver crimes, that might be a short-term problem we just have to deal with. Because if it goes legal in California, that is just putting up a giant expiration date on Federal criminalization of weed. It will only be a matter of time.