Montini: That doobie-ous Diane Douglas cannabis comment

State School Superintendent Diane Douglas can’t seem to decide if she wants to be the new Joe Arpaio, the new Jan Brewer or the new…Evan Mecham. Or maybe an amalgam of all three.

She has become the go-to politician for local, state and national politicians looking for a bizarre, outrageous or inflammatory quote.

This time, Douglas told The Arizona Republic’s Yvonne Wingett Sanchez that if Arizona’s voters choose to legalize marijuana that the notion of using the tax money from pot sales would be "evil and hypocritical.”

Evil?

Hypocritical?

First, there is nothing about any drug – or any other inanimate object – that is evil. There are, of course, evil uses for just about everything. Drugs. Guns. Cars. Words. Everything.

The supporters of marijuana legalization have said that they believe a tax on cannabis could contribute as much at $40 million to the state's funding for K-12 education.

Douglas reacted to this suggestion by telling the Republic, “I believe that using drug money to educate our school children is evil and hypocritical and I don’t want any part of it. While Arizona is in desperate need of more K-12 education funding, a more responsible solution must be identified. Furthermore, the purported $40 million that proponents of the marijuana proposal claim would go to education is nowhere near sufficient to make a real difference.”

Douglas is the highest ranking education official in the state. You’d think she would know a thing or two about how Arizona funds many of its most important programs.

For example, First Thing First, that long-time taxpayer-approved program that uses tobacco-tax money to pay for early-childhood services, among other things.

And there’s the state lottery, which has added billions to the state coffers for transportation, the environment, health services and state’s general fund, which funds just about everything else.

Then think about the money government entities receive from fines for all manner of bad behavior, and how, in theory, we use those funds for the public good.

Imagine the amount of money the state receives from taverns and bars and dining establishments of one kind or another that serve alcohol. Another drug. Is that evil? Hypocritical?

Or is putting that tax money to good use practical and beneficial?

Unlike the cannabis comment by Douglas, which, at best, is...Illogical.

And, of course, predictable.