Speech Story Nancy Hanger

“The government doesn’t care if you get high,” say High Times editor-in-chief Steve Hager, “half the country takes pills as it is. They do have a problem though, cause I if hand you a marijuana seed, I am handing you medicine for the rest of your life.”

“Any doctor that tells you to smoke something because it’s good for you is a damn fool!” retaliates Robert Stutman, a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent in the New York City office, in last night’s heated debate.

Yesterday evening, April 19, 2010, the University Union and the Ideas and Issues Committee at the University of Georgia sponsored the “Heads vs. Feds Debate: The Debate to Legalize Marijuana.”

Representing the Heads was Steve Hager, the editor-in-chief of High Times Magazine or as the introductory video named him “the most famous pot head.” He is also the founder of the Counterculture Hall of Fame and the celebrated Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam. Robert Stutman, a retired special agent for the DEA and a leading advocate in drug prevention and education, spoke for the Feds.

The doors to the Tate Student Theater opened at 7 p.m., but that was hardly enough time to file in the 500 plus students waiting and hoping for an available seat in the theater. As the clock slowly ticked toward the big debate, groups of students in tie-dye t-shirts with dreadlocks and beaded jewelry gathered at the back of the ticket line that had wrapped around the entire room.

There was a buzz of excitement in the air as college students decked out in Grateful Dead and Led Zeppelin t-shirts high-fived their friends as they met up in line.

Disappointment hit the huge crowd waiting in line when over 90 students were turned away due to lack of seating in the theater; the turnout was much bigger than expected.

Every single seat in the theater was occupied as the last lucky students marched in to the sound of Bob Marley’s “Exodus.” Two or three students walked up and down the aisles passing out marijuana leaf stickers to the crowd they had brought from home for the much-anticipated occasion.

Hager began the debate with five big reasons to legalize this important part of his culture. He explained that “culture isn’t something you buy in a box or watch on TV, culture is actually the ceremonies you and your tribe create.”

“We must stop funding corruption,” says Hager. “We have built the biggest prison system here in America, the land of the free.” He argues that we are spending billions of dollars putting our youth in cages for something they shouldn’t have been imprisoned for in the first place. “There is a difference between people who use substances and people who abuse. And those people belong in treatment.”

“I mean please people, can we get a little bit of religious freedom?” Hager asks the crowd as a roar of applause and cheers erupts from the admiring students.

Stutman responds, “Most people in favor of marijuana want it legal because it’s their drug of choice and don’t want cops interfering.”

“Marijuana causes dependence. Many people go from having marijuana as part of their life to marijuana becoming their life,” states Stutman, who is aware that almost the entire theater is in favor of legalization. The crowd listens to his arguments and respectfully remains silent for their prominent guest.

Stutman’s most important objection was “if we legalize it, we will have far more users, and then far more alcohol users. They go up together.”

He then challenged the audience that if the entire country agrees and votes for the legalization of cannabis, then it should be legal. “But right now 59% of the American public is against it…. and that is tyranny by majority.”

Throughout the debate, it was clear that both of these speakers had completely opposite views with different backgrounds and experiences. Hager even lightly joked to the audience that the Stutman means well, he just doesn’t understand because he’s never tried it.

The debate eventually boiled down to a question of medicine and a battle of scientific studies collected by each of the speakers.

“Nobody knows anybody who got cancer from marijuana,” claims Hager much to the pleasure of the audience.

While Stutman refers back to his basic rule of litigation, “If the facts are on your side, argue the facts. If the law is on your side, argue the law. And if nothing is on your side, just keep arguing.”