cannabisnews.com: Debate To Legalize Marijuana Attracts Crowd 





Debate To Legalize Marijuana Attracts Crowd 
Posted by CN Staff on April 03, 2003 at 08:25:41 PT
By Abby Workman
Source: Daily Nebraskan 
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."Source: Daily Nebraskan (NE) Author: Abby WorkmanPublished: April 03, 2003 Copyright: 2003 Daily Nebraskan Contact: letters unl.edu Website: http://www.dailynebraskan.com/Related Articles & Web Site:High Times Magazinehttp://www.hightimes.com/Former DEA Agent, Journalist To Square Offhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14536.shtmlGanja Debate Draws Crowd http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14427.shtmlExperts Debate High Times and Crimeshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14288.shtml
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Comment #3 posted by druid on April 03, 2003 at 10:27:55 PT
here's a good one. :)
http://www.ncbuy.com/news/wireless_news.html?qdate=2003-04-03&nav=VIEW&id=V81802Y46FN030403April 3, 2003 - Wireless FlashBrain Scan Suggests Hussein High On HashLAKEWOOD, Ohio (Wireless Flash) -- Saddam Hussein's regime may be going up in smoke -- pot smoke to be exact.That's the word from a woman in Lakewood, Ohio, who claims she made that discovery while "brain surfing" Hussein's head.Miriam Garabrant claims Hussein is hiding in a secret underground bunker where doctors are treating him for injuries to his right side.The treatment seems to be a treat. Garabrant says Iraqi doctors are using medical marijuana and hashish to soothe Saddam, who is lying flat on his back on a Persian-style carpet.Amazingly, the pain doesn't seem to be hurting his sex life. Garabrant says Hussein has continued to make love with various "harem girls" even while his soldiers fight the war.But there's a price for pleasure. The sex and drugs are making Hussein too loopy to be in the loop, which is why other Iraqi leaders have been filling in for him during public appearances.
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Comment #2 posted by druid on April 03, 2003 at 09:56:55 PT
Have you seen this yet?
And from Oregon even!! :( What a civil rights nightmare this would be. Oregon Law Would Jail War Protesters as Terrorists
Wed April 2, 2003 09:01 PM ET
By Lee DouglasPORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) - An Oregon anti-terrorism bill would jail street-blocking protesters for at least 25 years in a thinly veiled effort to discourage anti-war demonstrations, critics say.The bill has met strong opposition but lawmakers still expect a debate on the definition of terrorism and the value of free speech before a vote by the state senate judiciary committee, whose Chairman, Republican Senator John Minnis, wrote the proposed legislation.Dubbed Senate Bill 742, it identifies a terrorist as a person who "plans or participates in an act that is intended, by at least one of its participants, to disrupt" business, transportation, schools, government, or free assembly.The bill's few public supporters say police need stronger laws to break up protests that have created havoc in cities like Portland, where thousands of people have marched and demonstrated against war in Iraq since last fall."We need some additional tools to control protests that shut down the city," said Lars Larson, a conservative radio talk show host who has aggressively stumped for the bill.Larson said protesters should be protected by free speech laws, but not given free reign to hold up ambulances or frighten people out of their daily routines, adding that police and the court system could be trusted to see the difference."Right now a group of people can get together and go downtown and block a freeway," Larson said. "You need a tool to deal with that."The bill contains automatic sentences of 25 years to life for the crime of terrorism.Critics of the bill say its language is so vague it erodes basic freedoms in the name of fighting terrorism under an extremely broad definition."Under the original version (terrorism) meant essentially a food fight," said Andrea Meyer of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which opposes the bill.Police unions and minority groups also oppose the bill for fear it could have a chilling effect on relations between police and poor people, minorities, children and "vulnerable" populations.Legislators say the bill stands little chance of passage."I just don't think this bill is ever going to get out of committee," said Democratic Senator Vicki Walker, one of four members on the six-person panel who have said they oppose the legislation.
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Comment #1 posted by afterburner on April 03, 2003 at 09:49:09 PT:
Top 2 Prohibitionist Arguments and 1 Faint Praise.
"What concerns me is the negative effects of inhaling deeply and the high risks for cancer," Bob Stutman, who spent 25 years in the Drug Enforcement Administration, said.Stutman also spoke of other negative consequences of marijuana, including mental impairment and accidents on the highway and in the workplace.Hear how David Malmo-Levine rebuts these 2 favorite arguments of the prohibitionists, in an amazingly broad context of the possible future once people come to their senses and re-legalize cannabis. (on Pot-TV: Hempology 101's 2003 St. Phattie's Day Celebration in B.C., Canada [ http://www.pot-tv.net/ram/pottvshowse1857.ram ] with David Malmo-Levine [20:46 - 37:02]).Oddly, the former DEA agent admitted that cannabis may have some medical use: Stutman said he didn't doubt certain parts of marijuana could be useful as long as they were tested properly. Does he know something that the researchers and doctors at HHS and FDA don't?!?!?!ego destruction or ego transcendence, that is the question.
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