On Wednesday, September 17, 2014, a debate on the legalization of Marijuana was held on Penn State Berks campus. This event was hosted by Students for Sensible Drug Policy and the Arts & Lecture Series and was open to the public. Up on stage in front of a packed auditorium of about 300 people, stood Aaron Houston and Dr. Kevin Sabet at parallel podiums. And as Kim Grinberg, President of SSDP, said in her welcome speech: “Drug use can be descreet but talking about it should not be.” So let’s talk.
Photo credit: Elan Lift, Penn State Berks Student
About the Debaters
Aaron Houston: In favor
Aaron Houston was the executive director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy from 2010-2013, is a co-founder and board member of Marijuana Majority, a strategist for Ghost Group – the world’s leading marijuana technology company – and served as a full-time marijuana legalization lobbyist on Capitol Hill from 2005-2010.
See him here: Stephen Colbert Show, The Today Show and Fox Business: The Willis Report.
His View: Quotes from Aaron Houston’s Argument
“Right now we are at a marijuana tipping point. Out policies are changing. Our politicians are changing.”
“There are 25% fewer deaths in medical marijuana states.”
“The key difference between my side and his [Dr. Sabet] is that my side is making tangible policies that are keeping people out of jail.”
“Should marijuana users be put in cages or should they be able to make rational choices to put something in their body that is less harmful than alcohol?”
“I believe in the law of supply and demand. We need to try a better way. We need to put these [marijuana] revenues in the hands of the government not drug cartels.”
Photo credit: Elan Lift, Penn State Berks Student
Dr. Kevin Sabet: In opposition
Dr. Kevin Sabet is the director at the University of Florida Drug Policy Institute, a former Senior Drug Policy Advisor for President Obama, the director of Project Sam (Smart Approaches to Marijuana) and author of “Reefer Sanity: Seven Great Myths About Marijuana.”
See him here: CNN Newsroom, BBC World News, Piers Morgan Tonight and The War Room.
His View: Quotes from Dr. Kevin Sabet’s Argument
“Legalization is not about singing Kumbaya by the fire. It’s only about money. The values of the hippies have been erased by the values of Wall Street CEOs.”
“Do we really want to treat marijuana like alcohol? Alcohol has a widespread use in our culture: 60-75% of people drink regularly – it’s an ingrained part of our society…If something is cheap and easy to get, people will use it…So no, I don’t think we want to turn it into an industry.”
“We are in favor of people not going to jail for low level amounts of marijuana in their system… but we still need some kind of social unacceptability marker.”
“I’m not against pharmaceutical use. I want to make medical marijuana a reality. There should be an exception for the parent with a child with epilepsy as long as the parent understands the risks.”