DEBATE TO LEGALIZE MARIJUANA ATTRACTS CROWD by Abby Workman, Chairs couldn't be brought in fast enough to the Centennial Room in the Nebraska Union on Wednesday night. Heads Vs. Feds brought in a standing-room-only crowd of 500 to 600 people to hear Steve Hager, the editor in chief of High Times Magazine, and Bob Stutman, who spent 25 years in the Drug Enforcement Administration, debate about legalizing marijuana. The two men started the debate giving their own arguments and followed with an opportunity for anyone in the crowd to come forward with questions for either or both men. Hager began the debate with five reasons why marijuana should be legalized. He also said prisons were overcrowded with inmates serving time for dealing and possessing marijuana. Marijuana serves as a good, inexpensive medicine and is an environmentally friendly product, Hagar said. "The pharmaceutical companies want you to buy their synthetic drugs, which will get you higher and far more addicted than marijuana. "There are 25,000 things that were made from hemp until it became illegal," Hagar said. Leaflets distributed at the debate noted products made from hemp, including diapers and ice cream. Hager stressed the danger of putting drug offenders in jail. "There is a lot more danger to go to jail, than to smoke a marijuana cigarette," he said. "Lock someone in a cage for 15 years ( and ) you're destroying their lives and creating a bigger problem." Hager also addressed the amount of money made on illegal sales of marijuana. "Paying $300 for a bag of marijuana is insane," he said. "It should be $300 a pound, not an ounce." The ending point Hager made was the personal turning point in his life while being a member of the Lutheran Church. He said he was told things he didn't believe - with other marijuana users, Hager said, he found a "counterculture" he did believe in. "In my heart, I didn't believe what my pastor was saying, from there I found the counterculture which is a good culture, where we respect each other, a pure American culture." Stutman then had his chance to make his own arguments, at the same time responding to some of Hager's statements. "What I will say is all facts from peer reviews and medical journals. Don't accept it blindly, make your own decision," Stutman said. "What Steve forgot to tell you is the No. 1 selling drug - penicillin - is not a synthetic drug." Stutman pointed out Hager was not a doctor, though at the same time Stutman said he didn't doubt certain parts of marijuana could be useful as long as they were tested properly. "What concerns me is the negative effects of inhaling deeply and the high risks for cancer," he said. "Truly, I hope I'm wrong, but 20 years from now I don't want you to have lung or throat cancer and saying, 'Why me?'" Stutman also spoke of other negative consequences of marijuana, including mental impairment and accidents on the highway and in the workplace. On the issue of legalizing marijuana, Stutmen said, "By legalizing marijuana, you are going to create far more users. "As college students, you are not going to give up binge drinking to smoke marijuana," he said. "It just won't happen." During the question-and-response session, Hager said studies to which Stutman referred never happened. "Counterculture would recognize it if they had these risks," Hager said. "The problem is Bob has never tried it, and I will now personally invite him on an all-expense-paid trip to Amsterdam where Bob can legally consume cannabis, and sooner or later he will feel the effects. "I'll put on Bob Marley and he'll say, 'Man I didn't know music could sound so good.'" Stutman respectfully declined the offer. One issue involving marijuana on which both men did agree was unnecessarily jailing citizens for drug charges. "I don't believe anyone should be sent to jail for using any drug, I don't care what it is," Stutman said. Stutman closed by reiterating previous points made on the negative effects of marijuana use. Hager addressed the crowd directly and said, "If you are sitting around doing a bowl before the math quiz, you are not doing any good and you are the problem. "There is a difference between use and abuse, and if you don't know the difference than you better put it down." Vicki Cech, a freshman undeclared major, said she thought the men presented their sides of the debate well. "Steve knew what he was talking about with his own opinions, while Bob used the scientific approach maybe too much," she said. "I think it was a great event though. The topic interests college students, whether or not they use it. I'm sure people want to hear both arguments." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart Pubdate: Thu, 03 Apr 2003 Source: Daily Nebraskan (NE Edu) Copyright: 2003 Daily Nebraskan Contact: letters@unl.edu Website: http://www.dailyneb.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1176 Author: Abby Workman
Its more encounters like steve's that will make the judicial systems turn their heads in our direction.If they cant stop it, what will they do?.worst it will ever get is the government legalizing mj and taxing it!