NMU Marijuana Debate
Two Experts on the legalization of marijuana debate their opinions on the issue at NMU
Legalize It? Marijuana Policy Experts Aaron Houston and Dr. Kevin Sabet Debate Reefer Policy at NMU Monday, March 31, 2014. (Marquettemagazine.com photo by Erica McMillan)
On Monday March 31 – Marquette, MI – NMU’s Platform Personalities presented guest speakers Dr. Kevin Sabet and Aaron Houston on campus to debate marijuana policies. On one side, Sabet argued to limit marijuana, while on the other, Houston spoke of legalizing it.
Dr. Kevin Sabet about limiting marijuana usage as opposed to legalizing it during the NMU debate. (MarquetteMagazine.com photo by Erica McMillan)
Sabet started the debate by saying that the two of them could “disagree on policy points without being disagreeable.” That statement sums up the event for there was not as much arguing as I was expecting.
Sabet spoke about needing to find a middle ground to solve some of the issues dealing with marijuana. He strongly believes that making it legal will not help at all because it would simply increase the amount of people it is available to and would ultimately increase the number of accidents and violations.
He often compared marijuana to tobacco and alcohol companies, suggesting that making marijuana legal would push the suppliers to commercialize towards young people. This would be detrimental since teenagers are more susceptible to the more negative effects of the drug because their brain is not fully developed.
Sabet expects that as we watch Colorado, the public will soon change their minds. According to a survey done in March 2013 by Pew Research Center, 52 percent of Americans are for legalizing marijuana and only 45 percent are against it.
Aaron Houston speaks about reasons on behalf of legalizing marijuana usage in the U.S. (MarquetteMagazine.com photo by Erica McMillan
At the other podium, Houston appealed to our humanity and sympathy by arguing that it is a waste of time to be “locking humans in cages” for using an herbal substance that grows in the ground.
Houston supports legalizing it because that would take money away from the cartels and people who don’t pay taxes. Since people are buying it and enjoying it, why not let the economy benefit instead of paying thousands upon thousands of dollars to fight the cartels and keep people in jail.
Before taking questions from the audience, they accused each other of trying to cover things up and push people in one direction or the other. Houston attacked some of the ridiculous political campaigns against marijuana. He laughed at the accusation that everyone would become zombies if they smoked it. “Propaganda is losing,” Houston said, “and people are seeing the truth.” That’s when an “Amen” came from a member in the audience.
Legalize It? Marijuana Policy Experts Aaron Houston (center right) and Dr. Kevin Sabet (center left) pose with members of Platform Personalities the student group that sponsored them to come to campus for Debate on Reefer Policy at Northern Michigan University, Monday, March 31, 2014. (Marquettemagazine.com photo by Erica McMillan)
Both debaters had solid arguments during the NMU marijuana debate, but left a lot of important things out. They did not talk about using it for recreational purposes. They did not go into depth about using it for medical reasons either. The only mention of it was when Houston hid behind the statement that marijuana can help people with cancer or other ailments and when Sabet kept pointing that out.
Neither of them went into much detail about the health effects, and I for one wanted to know if marijuana was worse than the use of alcohol and tobacco. After attempting to find information on my own about the effects, I learned that you can drink too much and you can overdose on nicotine but could not find anything about overdosing and dying from marijuana. As I researched it became obvious that there is not enough testing on the drug to get all the answers.
Another thing that they did not talk about was how marijuana, or hemp, became illegal in 1937. Before then, hemp was used for everything from clothing to paper. It was a mixture of yellow journalism and the investments of a few financial tycoons that conjured up a huge marijuana scare that is only recently being questioned.
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