The Wake

Swarms of students, some scraggly-haired and others well-dressed, anxiously waited outside the Great Hall in Coffman Union. Some adorned with pot leaf buttons smiled, asking passers-by if they were going to the “great debate.”

The longtime editor-in-chief of High Times magazine, Steve Hager, and 25-year-veteran of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Robert M. Stutman, debated marijuana legalization. Minnesota Program and Activities Council and the Onion sponsored the “Heads versus Feds” debate.

Marijuana is good medicine, Hager says, and noted how doctors prescribe synthetic medicine instead of those from nature. “I do believe this health care system is broken,” Hager says. He suggested that our health care system does not have a problem with getting high, because many kids are on Ritalin, a “mind altering drug” worse than marijuana. He says they have a problem with marijuana because people can plant a seed and have free medicine for the rest of their life.

There are two chemicals in cannabis that may be good medicine, Stutman says. He suggests that those chemicals should be extracted. When marijuana is smoked, 433 other useless chemicals are inhaled in order to get the two good ones, Stutman says.

When marijuana became illegal, there were 20,000 different things being produced from the seed and stalk, Hager says. “Our first American flag was made with marijuana,” Hager says. He described how products made from hemp are better for the environment than products now that contain petrochemicals that lead to pollution. Paper mills are the number one contributor to river pollution, Hager says.

On the other hand, Stutman says the main reason people want marijuana legalized has nothing to do with medicine or the environment; rather they want to get high without being hassled by the police.

More than two million people are locked up in jail right now, Hager says. He noted how so many people are being arrested for drug use that, instead of building schools, we are building prisons. Hager says that if a person has a problem with substances, they need to be in a hospital.

In the 25 years that Stutman worked for the DEA, the smallest amount of marijuana he arrested someone for was four tons. “I think it is stupid policy to throw anyone in prison for the use of a drug,” Stutman says. However, he says he has no problem arresting people who sell large amounts of drugs for profit because 1,800 teenagers die every month on average from drug overdose.

Stutman touched on the side issues of the larger use of the drug. Some people get dependent on marijuana, Stutman says. Marijuana lessens pressure on the optic nerve, so if you do not have glaucoma, it affects your depth perception, he says. Marijuana also interferes with people’s ability to think, reason and learn, he says.

Smoking marijuana has health risks similar to smoking cigarettes, Stutman says. Marijuana will cause throat, mouth and lung cancer, he says. “The Mayo Clinic said the carcinogens in marijuana are much stronger than those in tobacco,” Stutman says.

Stutman pointed out that if marijuana is legalized, it would be regulated and sold by pharmaceutical and tobacco companies. He also noted that if we had to vote today on making alcohol and tobacco legal with the knowledge we have now, neither would be approved.

Deceased musicians such as John Lennon, Bob Marley and Louie Armstrong used marijuana as a tool for creativity, Hager says. He also warned that there are times when it is inappropriate to be intoxicated, such as when you are a parent or when you are going to class.

Students were also urged to listen to both sides and to realize there is a middle ground. “The problem with this debate is people are too polarized,” Hager says. Before the debate, Stutman was hoping that no matter what side a student was on, he and Hager would make them think. Both Stutman and Hager expressed how they disagree, but will never personally attack one another because they are good friends. Hager explained how they first met on stage and had a screaming argument, but then they both moved closer to the middle and started to agree. They have been called the ultimate odd couple, he says.