One Toke Over The Harvard Line?

Does our old friend Charles Nesson teach his torts class stoned? Maybe
we're operating under the influence, but that's our impression from
the 63-year-old Harvard Law School professor's recent interview with
reporter Owen Alterman of the Harvard Law Record.

"I guess it would have been 1966 when I first smoked marijuana and
then did LSD, like '69, something like that," Nesson is heard telling
the student publication on an audiotape of the interview posted on
Nesson's Web site. "It came along with the period. I tried cocaine
once and got nothing from it, and that was that. And I've tried
ecstasy and amphetamines some in college. I remember Dexedrine got me
through statistics. And that's basically it. I don't do any drugs now
except marijuana."

The renowned legal scholar explained that he likes to have "a puff or
two of a joint" during his regular morning walks. "That's all it
takes, my boy," he told Alterman, whose Feb. 21 article quotes Nesson
as insisting, "I do not teach stoned." But Alterman reports that
"Nesson said in our interview that he has come to class at least once
'under the influence' of pot."

Maybe once is enough. After all, it costs $27,500 annually, not
counting room and board, to hear Nesson's thoughts, in addition to the
wisdom of his colleagues. When we asked Nesson to clarify, he said:
"No, not immediately before class. When Owen asked me if it had ever
had any effect on my classes, I responded that the things I think
about naturally affect anything I do. I don't guarantee that nothing
negative comes out."

The penalty for marijuana possession in Massachusetts is up to six
months in jail or a $500 fine or both for a first offense. For a
second or subsequent offenses, the penalty is up to two years or a
fine of up to $2,000 or both.

Nesson told us: "I think that the serious question that this touches
on is one of hypocrisy and how people deal with it, how law deals with
it, how I deal with it. . . . These kids come to me and there's
probably not one of them who hasn't used a forged ID. Probably not one
of them -- maybe not one or two -- who've never violated a drug law.
But most of the kids I'm talking to are already schooled in illegal
underage drinking and experimentation with small violations of law."

Yesterday Harvard Law School spokesman Michael Rodman declined to
comment. But we have our own comment: Oh, behave!