DEBATE TO LEGALIZE MARIJUANA ATTRACTS CROWD

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."