2008 Woodie Awards
Heads vs Feds: Marijuana legalization haze dazes campus
Matt McGowan
Issue date: 1/31/08 Section: News
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Two experts debated the highly controversial issues surrounding the legalization of marijuana in a toe-to-toe discussion Wednesday evening in the Texas Tech Student Union Building Allen Theatre.
In a presentation by the Tech Activities Board, Bob Stutman, a former senior member of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and a prominent expert on drug issues in the United States, explained his opposition to the national movement calling for legalization of the narcotic. His opponent, Steve Hager, is the editor of the pro-marijuana magazine "High Times" and a published advocate of the plant's decriminalization.
Marijuana, admittedly, is not the worst narcotic known to man, Stutman said, noting growing trends of adolescents abusing pharmaceutical drugs. Other intoxicants that are legal, such as alcohol, already cause enough problems. Marijuana legalization would equate to more usage.
"It's an intoxicant that we don't need added to the already-legal intoxicants," Stutman said. "We don't need to make a terrible problem worse by adding to it."
Hager called for a radical change in the way current U.S. legislation treats both marijuana and those who use it.
Current public policy regarding marijuana is "onerous," he said, and in his opening remarks, he outlined several reasons why cannabis should be decriminalized. People who smoke marijuana "eat better, sleep better and have better sex."
Replying to those who argue that marijuana is a gateway drug, Hager said it is more of a "keyhole" drug, citing statistics that indicate there are 30 million marijuana users in the United States, while there are only 1 million users of harder drugs like cocaine and heroin. The gateway theory about marijuana is much like the domino theory that led the United States into the war with Vietnam.
"It's kind of like the domino theory, isn't it?" he asked. "Doesn't it kind of sound the same? It's like, 'you can't let this door open because it'll be over.' It's the same argument. Now, did we have to go to Vietnam? Was the whole world going to go communist? No way. No way. Think about all those lives, destroyed."
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Viewing Comments 1 - 8 of 10
ejavaline
posted 1/31/08 @ 11:33 AM CST
do all you sheeple think drug dealers want drugs legalized...hell i bet half those politicians lobbing to keep it illegal are getting paid by drug dealers and private criminal justice lobbiest to keep it illegal. (Continued…)
Chuckisduck
posted 1/31/08 @ 3:42 PM CST
Hey sheeple, fight the man by not buying his lobbyist pot! I personally have no problem with the drug for occasional use, but most of my friends who practice its use do nothing with their lives. (Continued…)
Brian Morris
posted 1/31/08 @ 5:11 PM CST
I stood up to the FED at the debate. He quickly tried to discredit me by laughing that I did not work for the Federal government. I was U.S. Navy working for the NSA alongside FBI, DEA, US Customs, and CIA. (Continued…)
Justin DiLorenzo
posted 1/31/08 @ 5:36 PM CST
The conwsumption of "weed' by means of smoking. I understand the economic and political aspects of the arguments, but when do we pull back from large gov't and allow Americans to be Americans. (Continued…)
impeach bush
posted 1/31/08 @ 6:50 PM CST
The government needs to legalize marijuana so that the money spent funding the war on harmless drugs can perhaps be diverted elsewhere. I recommend using that money to fund rehabilitation for those addicted to Meth, Crack or Heroine. (Continued…)
BJ
posted 2/01/08 @ 12:28 PM CST
If anything should be illegal it should be alcohol. Don't get me wrong, I party just as much as the next student at Tech but everyday we hear about someone being killed by a drunk driver. (Continued…)
Amy M
posted 2/05/08 @ 3:09 AM CST
Marijuana use certainly doesn't positively contribute to the waistline, but it does have VERY many positive effects.
1. Depression. As much as people would like to discredit this illness by arguing that people should be able to "get themselves together," or continue to dope them with pharmaceuticals that make them emotinally numb, marijuana has shown significant progress in treating chronic depression. (Continued…)
John Galt jr.
posted 3/26/08 @ 10:55 PM CST
The point being is that depending on who you talk to 24 -30 million Americans currently use marijuana for one reason or another. According to the drugfree workplace acts of 1988 and 1998, these people who are citizens, are not entitled to basics like a job. (Continued…)
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