RICE QUESTIONS EDUCATORS’ SILENCE ON MARIJUANA LEGISLATION

URGES TAKING A STAND “TO PROTECT AND SUPPORT THE CHILDREN”

NEWARK – Senator Ronald L. Rice today issued the following statement challenging New Jersey’s K-12 education community to carefully consider the impact of recreational marijuana legislation on our state’s students:

While our legislators deliberate over recreational marijuana legislation that, if passed, would forever change the face of New Jersey, I’m baffled by the noncommittal silence we’re getting from educational organizations on this issue.

Since my earliest days as a public servant and the first pieces of legislation I’ve introduced to the state senate, I have striven to make our schools the robust and vital community centers they should be.  I envision our schools as hubs for knowledge, wisdom, friendships, alliances and actions that radiate health, reason, compassion and justice into our society.  And I look to these institutions to signal their commitment to those values.

As trusted extensions of our families, educators are the ones we commend our children to every school day.  We trust them to guide our most precious treasures, to teach them and keep them safe.

It seems to me that these are the very people who would want to engage in the conversation about recreational marijuana legislation – that they would want to weigh in on the concerns they should have about kids’ mental and physical health, about neighborhoods and family life.

Instead, there is a void there; a very perplexing silence that leaves me to question who speaks for the children today and for generations to come.

So today, I respectfully encourage all New Jersey school administrators and staff, and members of school boards, parent teacher associations and related organizations to examine the facts about marijuana legalization, to evaluate what is at stake, to deliberate thoughtfully and to take a stand to protect and support the children and families they serve.