DEBATE TO LEGALIZE MARIJUANA ATTRACTS CROWD

T

The420Guy

Guest
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."



Pubdate: Thu, 03 Apr 2003
Source: Daily Nebraskan (NE Edu)
Copyright: 2003 Daily Nebraskan
Contact: letters@unl.edu
Website: Dailyneb.com
 
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