YPU MEMBERS VOTE FOR LEGALIZED POT

Yale students gave the green light to ganja Wednesday night as the
Yale Political Union voted to approve a resolution in favor of
legalizing marijuana.

Approximately 100 students turned out to hear former Green Party
Connecticut gubernatorial candidate Clifford Thornton speak about the
need for drug legalization in Connecticut and the evils of the war on
drugs. Thornton speaks internationally to around 20,000 people each
year on the issue of drug legalization.

"I am going to talk to you about what is probably the most important
issue of your time," Thornton said. "It's not the war over there,
it's the war over here, and I'm talking about the war on drugs in America."

Thornton called the war on drugs a "four-decade-old farce" that has
cost the DEA $60 billion a year while resulting in the confiscation
of only 10 percent of illicit drugs traded in the United States.
Since inner-city economies depend on the drug trade, the war on drugs
allows the government to retain its legislative and policing control
over inner-city communities, he said.

"The drug war is meant to be waged, not won," Thornton said.

At the end of his speech, Thornton advocated three major changes to
current drug policy: ending the war on drugs, legalizing recreational
drugs such as marijuana, cocaine and heroin, and allowing the
"medicalization" of marijuana and other currently illegal substances.

Rachel Bayefsky '09, an Independent Party member who responded to
Thornton with a speech in the negative, said Thornton had "no
justification for a logical leap from the end to the war on drugs to
the legalization of marijuana." Bayefsky outlined the societal evils
of pot smoking as well as the risk of further black-market dealings,
even in a regulated market, due to high mark-ups on drug costs.

But some students at the debate said Bayefsky had little defense for
not allowing chronically ill patients, such as those with HIV or
glaucoma, the right to medicinal marijuana.

"Ms. Bayefsky got a little caught in the medicinal marijuana trap in
that it became increasingly clear to me as the debate went on that
it's difficult not to justify using these drugs for medicinal
purposes," said Avital Rutenberg-Schoenberg '09. "My only concern
would be medical exploitation of marijuana by medical practitioners."

Nate Scherer '10, an Independent Party member who spoke in the
affirmative, said it would be ethically "ludicrous" to deprive
certain patients of these functional drugs.

"The only criminality with marijuana is that it is illegal to grow,
sell and possess it," he said.

In the vote following the debate, YPU members overwhelmingly approved
the resolution in favor of legalizing marijuana, citing both
political and personal motives.

Andrew Olson '08 said he approved of Thornton's argument that the war
on drugs is politically negative for the country.

"The guest isn't really advocating drug use, but sensible drug
policy, and I think that is really important," Olson said. "The
larger problem is the idea that the government can make whatever
rules it feels like."

But David Manners-Weber '10, who asked Thornton whether he thought
legalizing drugs would involve pharmaceutical companies in the drug
trade, offered a more immediate argument for marijuana legalization.

"I'd rather purchase marijuana from Pfizer than the kid in my algebra
class," he said.