Drug experts debate legalization

If anyone had “the munchies” in the packed Assembly Room of the William Pitt Union… If anyone had “the munchies” in the packed Assembly Room of the William Pitt Union yesterday, their hunger was for stimulating debate, not junk food.

“Heads vs. Feds,” a debate over the legalization of marijuana, sponsored by the Pitt Program Council, pitted marijuana legalization advocate Steven Hager and former DEA agent Robert Stutman against each other and included audience participation as well.

Hager has been at the forefront of the marijuana legalization movement for many years. He has served as editor-in-chief of “High Times” magazine, off and on, since 1988. He also founded the Cannabis Cup – a competition amongst marijuana growers held every year in Amsterdam.

Stutman worked for the DEA for 25 years. He started as a street agent and worked his way up to the Special Agent in Charge of the New York field division – the largest division of the DEA. In 1990, after retiring, he founded the Stutman Group, an organization which designs and implements substance abuse programs.

One of Hager’s central arguments was that marijuana has medicinal benefits, citing its use in treating cancer, AIDS, glaucoma, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, among others.

He said that once its health benefits become widely known, “marijuana will become the greatest medicine in the world.”

“I know people who can walk because they use marijuana for medicine. I know people who are alive because they use marijuana for medicine,” Hager said.

Stutman countered this argument, saying that only two beneficial chemicals are found in marijuana – THC and CBL – and that they should be extracted in order to be used as medicine.

“You don’t prescribe smoking products as good medicine,” Stutman said.

Hager pointed out the hypocrisy in protecting alcohol, a more dangerous mind altering substance, while at the same time outlawing marijuana.

Stutman agreed that alcohol abuse is a problem in the U.S., but argued that it doesn’t make it acceptable to legalize marijuana.

“It will simply make a bad problem worse,” Stutman said.

Ryan, a freshman who attended the debate, echoed concerns the debaters held.

“[Marijuana] has less harmful effects than alcohol,” he said. “I think it’s more of a stigma that comes with marijuana. That’s why it hasn’t been legalized.”

Hager also emphasized the many practical uses of hemp, which he also called, “the cheapest commodity on the planet to produce.”

Stutman also said that studies have been shown that marijuana can cause dependence and lung, mouth and throat cancer.

Hager countered by pointing out that the harmful effects of smoking marijuana can be avoided by vaporizing or eating it.