DEBATE OVER LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA PIQUES STUDENT INTEREST

Marijuana brought the Kent State Student Center to life last night as more
than 900 listeners crowded the Ballroom to watch a debate on the
legalization of the drug sponsored by the All-Campus Programming Board.

The heavily pro-legalization audience cheered often and loudly for High
Times magazine editor Steve Hager, who argued his belief that marijuana is
connected to his spirituality.

"They can't argue against my right to have my own spirituality," Hager
said. "And cannabis happens to be a part of that spirituality. They can't
take that away."

Robert Stutman, a 25-year veteran of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA),
argued the side of anti-legalization and repeatedly challenged Hager to
name a medical group that supported marijuana use. Stutman cited several
medical journals that discouraged the use of marijuana for medicinal
purposes. While Hager failed to cite a single doctor or group of physicians
that supported his cause, he did comment on Stutman's challenges after the
debate.

"Dr. Lester Grinspoon," Hager said. "He graduated from Harvard medical
school, and he supports the medicinal use of cannabis. I could give you a
hundred doctors that would say marijuana is the best medicine you can take,
but for every study I have, he could have another that disagrees with it.
You have to look past that propaganda bull shit. It's about spirituality."

Stutman said the High Times editor was full of half-truths and used
people's emotional attachment to the drug to support his cause.

"Emotionalism should never be a component of policy in the U.S.," Stutman
said. "That's what happened with Japanese concentration camps."

Moderator Joe Dangelo, undergraduate student senator for academic affairs,
opened the debate up to audience questions after each man gave a 10-minute
opening argument.

Former president of the Kent State Neo-Pagan coalition, Zon Mundhenk, asked
Stutman how he could justify the use of pharmaceutical drugs like Marynol
but not marijuana. Marynol is a synthetic form of marijuana that is sold as
a pharmaceutical.

"The label on Marynol cautions users that this drug causes addiction and
long term psychotic behavior," Stutman said. "If marijuana was used as a
medicine, it should face the same standards that all medicines have to go
through. It should go through the FDA process."

Hager responded that synthetic drugs are dangerous, marijuana should be
freely available and anyone who wants to cultivate the plants for medicinal
reasons should have the right to do so. The majority of Americans are
opposed to the legalization of marijuana because they have been told it is
bad for so many years, he said.

Addressing Stutman, Hager said, "If you hadn't created a propaganda
campaign over the years, there wouldn't be such a negative reaction against
the counter-culture."

Most students in attendance thought each debater made his point, but few
were swayed by Stutman's statistics on the dangers of marijuana.

"It was a very factual debate," said psychology major P.J. Lukasewski.
"They both presented their cases well, but I'm more on the pro-legalize
side. Neither of them misled anybody, but the crowd went with (Hager)."

Brad Smith, a psychology and criminal justice major, stood out in the minority.

"Everything (Hager's) saying about legalization is total bull shit," he
said. "It's all just an excuse to use marijuana. I have an open mind, and I
can't believe what he says."