America is going to pot.  Literally.

The latest Pew Research Center poll shows that 54% of Americans favor legalizing marijuana. 

If you are part of that 54%, you must be on cloud nine (high, in other words).

First came states allowing medical marijuana dispensaries.

Then in the November 2012 election, Colorado and Washington citizens voted to legalize it for recreational use.

And now, California here you come, get ready for the same to happen in 2016.

Evidently, the adage “if you can’t beat them, legislate them” applies here as politicians view selling pot as another revenue maker like the Indian casinos.

However, do people really want 7-Eleven to sell marijuana cigarettes?

The 420 bacchanal that occurred in Denver on Easter Sunday with thousands celebrating the smoking of marijuana seemed like a live horror movie.  While smoking pot in public remains illegal, it did not deter most who now feel emboldened to flaunt their lifestyle while authorities turned a blind eye (only 47 citations were issued).

Bad behavior is the new good behavior.

It’s not enough for pot smokers to continue their illegal habits in the privacy of their own homes.   No, they want everyone to accept their lifestyle, and to shove it in everyone else’s face.  The Selfie generation makes the Me generation look philanthropic in comparison.

Legalizing marijuana, no matter the 21 years old minimum age requirement, gives off the message that it is safe.   Never mind that in March a college student jumped to his death from a fourth floor balcony in Denver after eating a marijuana cookie, his death due to “marijuana intoxication.”

Allowing another mind-altering drug legal status pulls the rug out from under decent parents who devote their lives instilling solid values in their children.

Once marijuana is legalized, how do schools’ anti-drug campaigns respond, and what changes, if any, will occur?

Currently, Glendale Unified has four middle and 5 high schools that have a Tobacco-Use Prevention Education (TUPE) program funded through 1988’s Proposition 99 cigarette tax. 

The District’s Assistant Director of Student Support Services Dr. Scott Anderle said that if marijuana ends up legalized, it would still remain illegal for minors so the same anti-drug campaign that is available in schools today such as Red Ribbon Week in October along with TUPE would continue.  

I’ve seen students in my classroom who are high by the redness of their eyes or by the lack of clarity in their thinking.   We don’t need more kids stoned.  

It is not much of an extension to think that those people growing up in the permissive 1960s and 1970s have passed down to their children (who then pass it down to their children) the lax attitude not just towards drug use but other moral issues.

Those who have made cigarette smokers the lepers of the 21^st century should likewise oppose pot smokers.    All the things non-smokers do not like about cigarette smoke still apply to marijuana:  second-hand smoke, ashes and butts on the ground, and don’t forget the carcinogens.

Referencing this column’s title, it is a jungle out there and I increasingly feel powerless counteracting the nastiness that permeates our culture.

Over the years, with the help of William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and Maya Angelou, I’ve tried teaching students the importance of human compassion and people treating one another with a common decency.

Where is the organized effort to stand up for the other half who are not in favor of legalizing marijuana?

It seems that law-abiding people have to retreat, stay home, shut the doors, and keep the decaying social mores away.  The pot smokers are coming, the pot smokers are coming.