During an interview promoting his upcoming Las Vegas residency at the new Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino beginning May 27, the guitarist talked about legalizing the plant no one may possess under penalty of law.

“Legalize marijuana and take all that money and invest it in teachers and in education,” Santana said in an interview this week. ‘You will see a transformation in America.”

Santana told the interviewer he felt legalizing marijuana was “way overdue.” That is, when he wasn’t knocking California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“I really believe that as soon as we legalize and decriminalize marijuana we can actually afford a really good governor who won’t keep taking money away from education and from teachers and send him back to Hollywood where he can do ‘D’ movies and we can get an ‘A’ governor.”

But wait, there’s one more quote, and it’s not about “higher” education.

Asked about possible retirement plans, the 61-year-old guitar hero said:

“Every time I tell God my plans he cracks up, he starts laughing. So I just decided to be quiet for a while and not say that I am going to retire and go to Maui and become a minister. God was cracking up. He thought it was a good joke. So I said, ‘OK.’ Every time I want to make him laugh I tell him my plans. So we’ll see.”

Read the Associated Press item here.