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Marijuana Debate Still Smoking
Mark Harper | Daytona Beach News-Journal | 09/18/2006

Steven Hager has five reasons why marijuana should be legalized.

With just one argument, Bob Stutman can make the case for keeping it illegal.

People who show up at a public forum Wednesday night at Stetson University in DeLand will have the opportunity to decide for themselves, as Hager, a former editor of High Times magazine, squares off against Stutman, a retired Drug Enforcement Agency man, in "The Great Debate: Heads vs. Feds."

Students who are helping to organize the debate are anticipating a large turnout. The Stetson Council of Student Activities has posted leaflets around campus depicting pot plants and DEA badges.

"It's caused a stir on campus," said Anthony Colavito, a sophomore who is promoting the event as a council member. "Controversy builds interest, and students are eager to hear this."

Marijuana -- which has been used by humans for over 4,000 years -- remains the most popular of illegal drugs, according to the federal government's 2005 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Despite the rise of club drugs and pharmaceuticals among today's college students, more than half of the 19.7 million people who used illicit drugs in the month before the survey used marijuana exclusively.

Meanwhile, drug use among baby boomers in their 50s has been on the rise over the past four years, the survey shows.

While some cities have taken steps in recent years to de-emphasize police investigations of marijuana possession and use, the legalization issue is below the radar of most mid-term Congressional races. The only political candidate with national recognition who is running on a pro-legalization platform is Kinky Friedman, the entertainer and writer running for governor of Texas. But even he doesn't list it as one of his priorities on his campaign Web site.

Stutman, a DEA agent for 25 years, said he believes the legalization effort isn't gaining traction, even if legal restrictions seem to be easing on marijuana offenders. He said moving away from jailing people for possession is the right approach.

But he stands strong against legalizing the drug.

"We will have significantly more users" if marijuana is made legal, he said. "We will have between five and 10 times more users."

He compared the legalization of marijuana to the 21st Amendment, which lifted the prohibition on alcohol in 1933. "Last year, alcohol killed 300,000 people in the United States," he said.

But Hager touts marijuana's benefits.

In an e-mail, he listed five reasons he supports legalization:

· "It's good medicine;"

· "Hemp is good for the environment;"

· "We need to stop expanding and privatizing prisons;"

· "We need to stop funding corruption with prohibition prices;"

· "It's the sacrament of my culture."

But Stutman sticks to his original point: It does damage.

"As a side effect, you have loss of depth perception. You have lung disease. And amotivational syndrome," he said. "Some people become dependent. Clearly not all, but a number of them do."

Hager and Stutman agree to disagree on legalization, but both send a strong anti-drug abuse message. Hager says the difference between use and abuse can sometimes be difficult to determine, but he has a couple of tips.

"If you ever find yourself lying, screaming or stealing to get marijuana, you've likely crossed over," he said. "And if you're not sure when it's appropriate to be intoxicated, versus when it's not, you might have trouble drawing the right lines."

mark.harper@news-jrnl.com

"The Great Debate: Heads vs. Feds" starts at 8 p.m. Wednesday in Elizabeth Hall Chapel, 421 N. Woodland Blvd. Admission is free and the public is invited.

 

Buzzby

Let's see... If there are 24,000,000 cannabis users in the US and legalization created 10 times more then there would be 240,000,000 users. I believe that is roughly equivalent to the number of Americans over the age of 6.

Is he saying that he wants to bring back alcohol prohibition? We all know what a great success that was! BTW, the figure is 110,000, not 300,000.

So what? Everything does damage. The real question is: does it do more good than harm? People seem to have agreed that alcohol and tobacco do more good than harm. That's why they're legal, right? Marijuana does far more good than either of these drugs and far less harm.

The same could be said for a lot of twenty-somethings getting out of college.

I've never known a marijuana aficionado who has done any of those things.

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