^I work in education--with young children-- and it is a bastion of "all drugs are equal/all-drugs-are-bad-unless-they-come-from-big-pharma-on-a-prescription-pad" type of thinking. You would be surprised at how many people either do not know and would be shocked to know that many of us use cannabis (medically or recreationally). I think this is what the author was talking about. People think of stoners in a very stereotypical way.
I'll weigh in on the work thing, though. I used to manage restaurants. Managing stoned waiters at work is not fun--basically means you take over and do half their workload as they move at half-speed. 8)