Re: "It's just pot.": Double Standard?

(I am sure these headers are all messed up due to my snippage -- sorry)

Bo Raxo wrote:
> "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> news:newscache$yfo7lj$ly$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>
>> "Bo Raxo" <crimenewscenter@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>> news:HKudna6iGsK14QTbnZ2dnUVZ_gmdnZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>>
>>> "Paul J. Berg" <pjberg@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>>> news:2972-4699381B-774@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>>>
>>>>
snip
>
>
>> You have a school principal here who is risking his job and possibly
>> his remaining career so he can smoke some grass in a public park.
>> In short, the guy cannot even wait an hour to get home and have a
>> toke.

Maybe he wanted to smoke pot in the park, surrounded by nature on a
beautiful day and all that.  I know lots of people who do.
>>
snip
>
>> For all the defenders out there, how exactly was this guy supposed
>> to get home from this park he was toking out in?  Walk home?  I
>> very much doubt it.  No, he was just going to toke out and then
>> get in his car and drive home.  As in, under the influence.
>
> Bah, people who are high on pot don't generally have anywhere near the
> physical impairment of someone who is drunk.  The law may see them as
> the same, and there are some good reasons for doing so under the law,
> but as a practical matter most regular pot smokers can drive pretty
> well after smoking a joint.
>
Really, Bo?  I am not doubting you.  I was just wondering if you had any
cites for that.
>>
snip

>>To me, him smoking pot in a public park is as stupid as
>> riding a motorcycle without a helmet.

Really, person who isn't Bo?  So you think that a principal should lose
his
job for riding a motorcycle without a helmet?
>>
>
> You actually think teenagers look at their principal as a role model,
> someone to emulate?  Dude, were you ever actually a teenager?

No kidding, Bo!
>
>
>>>> If  Mr. Miller was the school's janitor would he still have his
>>>> job?
>>>
>>> If he was the school's janitor, would the school board have even
>>> found out
>>> about the citation?  Would it have made the news?
>>>
>>
>> Irrelevant, schools are not holding up janitors as role models.

Why not?  It's honest work.  What's wrong with it?

snip

>> If he smoks pot on the weekend in the privacy of his home then fine,
>> they are certainly not at risk.  If he does so in a public place,
>> gets high, then
>> drives home then he's putting a lot of people at risk.
>
> You have no idea if the park was within walking distance of his home,
> or he was taking a bus, or even a cab.

Good point, Bo.

snip
>
> Must be different when you are.  Nearly all of my friends have gotten
> a DUI (some a second one), and nobody ever got diversion.  A couple
> hired lawyers and managed to plea out to a wet and reckless, most
> either pled guilty or hired a lawyer and lost anyway.

Really?  I don't know anyone who has ever gotten a DUI.  Of course, people
don't drive in NYC.
>
>
>>
snip
>
> He sounds like he's good at his job.

Clearly he is.  They are desperate to keep him.  It is NOT easy to find a
good principal.

>Outside government, as in the
> real world, that would actually count as to whether he kept his job
> or not. Because the private sector understands economics.   But
> inflexible standards that government agencies run under make just the
> kind of stupid decision you're advocating, and that's one of the
> reasons government doesn't run as efficiently as the private sector.

Well, thanks to NCLB (and I hate NCLB), people are starting to understand
that more and more.  If this guy is making his NCLB numbers -- not easy to
do -- they will NOT want to let him go.  No way.

I would like to say here that the thing that REALLY bothers me about this
is
the hypocrisy.  The school conducts random drug tests of its students,
apparently.  I don't see how the principal, a pothead himself, could in
good
conscience do that to kids he is supposed to protect.  That makes me lose
sympathy for him, but even though I despise his hypocrisy, I still think
that the man should not lose  his job for smoking pot.

Of all drugs, including alcohol, pot surely causes the least harm.  I
think
it's ridiculous that it is illegal.  I think it's ridiculous that a
principal who is clearly doing his job is in danger of losing it because
he
smoked some pot.  I know so many potheads -- one of the most brilliant
teachers I ever knew (I worked with him) was a big pothead.  He didn't
smoke
at work, so I didn't care.
>
>
> Bo Raxo

-- 
nimue

"Let your freak-flag fly, and if someone doesn't get you, move on."
Drew Barrymore