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Marijuana use up for discussion
Blake Farmer | Nashville City Paper | February 20, 2006

If marijuana becomes a legal substance, Tennessee has the ideal growing conditions to cultivate a cannabis farm, according to High Times magazine Editor Steve Hager.

Bob Stutman, a retired agent of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, says the legalization of marijuana would create an epidemic of addicts on par with alcohol abuse in the U.S.

Stutman and Hager have made careers on opposite sides of the marijuana legalization divide, but several times a year they share the stage on college campuses for a scholarly debate on the topic. The two will meet tonight at 8 p.m. in the Vanderbilt University Student Life Center.

“Students come in wanting to support one side and intensely disliking and distrusting the other side. What they generally find is we both have rational, logical, fair arguments,” Stutman said.

After years of the same debate, Stutman and Hager have become unlikely friends.

“You wouldn’t know it from the debate because we argue vehemently, but it never becomes personal,” Stutman said. “At the end of the night we always hug.”

At first, the two had trouble finding any common ground. Even as a retired DEA agent who is known as the “most famous narc in America” with 5,000 investigations and 15,000 drug-related arrests, Stutman said his opponent’s well-known drug use does not bother him. He said drug trafficking was his concern, not locking up “potheads.”

Steve Hager insists that he is a responsible marijuana user and part of the counterculture movement. He said debating Stutman has changed some of his habits.

“Bob convinced me that smoking is not a good thing,” he said. “Fortunately, we have technology called vaporization. Machines basically remove the active ingredient without any carcinogens from smoke or carbon monoxide.”

Hager said High Times teaches readers how to grow their own marijuana through the monthly magazine and an iTunes “Pot-cast.” The publication also makes efforts to further the legalization of marijuana. Hager adds that he believes people have been “hoodwinked” about cannabis.

Hager supports the legalization of marijuana for a handful of reasons, including its medicinal purposes and low potential for abuse.

Stutman simply defends his position by pointing to the number of people who already use legal mood-altering substances.

“There are about 170 million users of alcohol and about 15 million users of marijuana. Those numbers don’t come by accident,” Stutman said.

The percentage of VU students who report using marijuana is lower than that of the national average, said Jeanine Atkinson, head of the university’s Office of Alcohol, Tobacco & Other Drug Prevention. However, she said part of the college experience includes stimulating debate and critical thinking.

“There are still some individuals that do get into marijuana over their heads, and sometimes a program like this is the only type of program that they will actually come out to,” Atkinson said.

Three years ago, VU hosted a similar event and had standing room only in a 600-seat lecture hall. Atkinson said the discussion is geared toward students, but the public is invited to attend.

Stutman and Hager will take audience questions or inquiries submitted anonymously by e-mail.

Tonight’s event is part of an effort to limit drug use over spring break, which starts March 4.

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Buzzby

1) Alcohol is an addictive "hard" drug.
2) Alcohol has been the traditional intoxicant in Western cultures for thousands of years.
3) Most marijuana users quit before they're 30.

The arguments for prohibiting alcohol have much more validity than the arguments for banning cannabis. America tried it and it was a disaster. People want to alter their consciousness; it's part of human nature. Why not allow them a much safer way to do it?

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400excrazy

i went to this tonight it was very cool. there was alot of info and stuff i learned. i will say both debaters had very good points. i had to leave before it was over but i am very glad i went