Seventy students gathered in Rudder 701 Tuesday night to watch a former High Times magazine editor and a former narcotics agent debate about legalizing marijuana during a live satellite broadcast.
Marijuana should be legalized because it is "part of my culture" and "locking people up for substance use or abuse is not a good thing in my opinion," said Steve Hager, who edited High Times magazine about marijuana usage, for 15 years.
Robert Stutman, a former U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency agent, said marijuana should not be legalized because it "contributes significantly to accidents" by harming depth perception. Dr. Billy Martin, a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at Virginia Commonwealth University, attempted to set things straight with a non-biased scientific perspective. He pointed to a 1999 report from the Institute of Medicine called "Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base."
"For most people the primary adverse effect of acute marijuana use is diminished psychomotor performance," the report says. "It is, therefore, inadvisable to operate any vehicle or potentially dangerous equipment while under the influence of marijuana, THC, or any cannabinoid drug with comparable effects."
While Hager argued that marijuana is useful in the treatment of cancer, Stutman said it may actually lead to cancer.
The report states that marijuana smoke, like tobacco smoke, is associated with increased risk of cancer, lung damage and poor pregnancy outcomes, Martin said.
"If you're intelligent, the way to consume it today is to vaporize it, drink it as a tea, or put it in brownies," Hager said.
Stutman said marijuana causes dependency and "interferes with one's ability to think at times."
"Although few marijuana users develop dependence, some do," the report states. "A distinctive marijuana withdrawal syndrome has been identified, but it is mild and short-lived."
Elhindi Al-Barazi, a junior accounting major, said he enjoyed the seminar and would like to see a pro-legalization student organization at A&M. "I think it was a very cool thing to see here, because it is such a conservative campus," he said. "If marijuana remains illegal, I feel that alcohol and tobacco should be illegal as well."
Allied Health Adviser Kate Karstadt of the Office of Professional School Advising helped facilitate the event.
"I like the idea of decriminalizing marijuana ... ," she said, "It should be at least on par with alcohol."
After the broadcast, a debate was scheduled for the students with moderators Lt. Dan Jones of the College Station Police Department and Director of Informatics for Medical Education Gale G. Hannigan, of the A&M Learning Resources and Medical Sciences Library.
None of the students present spoke in favor of keeping marijuana illegal.
"I thought we had a really conservative school," Karstadt said. "I was surprised at the turnout and at the liberal nature of opinions put forth."
She said the debate was advertised by medical student listservs, but the people who attended weren't on the listservs. News of the debate had spread by word of mouth. "They would have had a much higher turnout if more people had known about it," Al-Barazi said.
The program, "Heads vs. Feds: The Great Debate," was the last installment of a five-part series, "Dimensions and Directions of Health: Choices in the Maze," produced by Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society of the Two-Year College and the National Collegiate Honors Council.
It was broadcast to 385 colleges across the nation and facilitated on the A&M campus by the Office of Honors Programs and Academic Scholarships and Office of Professional School Advising.
"Marijuana is not a completely benign substance. It is a powerful drug with a variety of effects," the report states. "However, except for the harms associated with smoking, the adverse effects of marijuana use are within the range of effects tolerated for other medications."
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