CAMRY DEAN
Staff Writer
On April 13, community members who make up The Toastmasters of the Fredonia area, whose chapter is named the “Concord Spellbinders Club,” met at Fredonia for their first debate on legalizing the recreational use of marijuana for those 18 and older.
The Toastmasters, a club that helps its members improve communication and public speaking skills, has over 292,000 members in over 120 countries.
The debate, which was moderated by its treasurer, James Rawcliffe, heard strong arguments from both the supporting and the opposing sides.
Jim Holton, who debated in favor of the legalization of marijuana, focused on the broken criminal justice system and what he’s experienced working as a superintendent of schools for 25 years.
“As I look back on it, I now know a lot more about it and I cannot get over what our country did to so many budding students in the way of ruining lives and doing things we should not have done because we didn’t know better …,” he said. “I remember all kinds of suspensions, expulsions and incarcerations, and now our nation is actually accepting marijuana as a positive thing.”
Holton continued his supporting claims by talking about how the justice system has not only failed its inmates and taxpayers, but people of color as well. He argued that prisoners are packed with people guilty of marijuana offenses, with lopsided racial and ethnic bias.
“In other words, for taxpayers, we are spending more than a billion dollars a year to incarceration citizens for pot,” he said. “Despite roughly equal use, African Americans are three to four times more likely to get arrested for marijuana offences.”
To further support his argument, he spoke more positively about the effects the legalization of marijuana has had on states in America that have already legalized use, or are taking strides to decriminalize it.
Alaska, Oregon, Washington and Colorado have already legalized both the use of medical and recreational marijuana and have seen a significant decrease in crime rates compared to the 658,000 arrests a year in other states for marijuana possession alone.
After the first year of legalizing cannabis in Colorado, $63 million was brought into the state in revenue with an additional 13 million from licenses and fees. It also created 10,000 new jobs and lowered the unemployment rate so much that it become on of the lowest in the nation, he argued.
To second Holton, Rabbi Dr. Uriel Ben-Itzhaa, who fought in the Israeli Army for 30 years, also voiced his reasons to support the legalization of recreational marijuana. Ben-Itzaa, who is actually a member of the Chautauqua Talks Toastmasters, has been using medical marijuana for his PTSD and chronic pain. He said that switching from morphine to cannabis saved his life.
“Marijuana has medical benefits that far, far outweigh the hazards and the problems,” he said. “It shrinks aggressive brain tumors. It’s been shown effective in treating epilepsy. It’s been shown effective in treating depression.”
To oppose these arguments were Chautauqua Talks member Ned Lindstrom and his second, Crystal Harris.
Lindstrom, who has worked in the mental health field for over 25 years said, “Not too long ago, CBS News put out the question, ‘pot in psychosis: is there a possible link?’”
“There is a lot of research,” he said. “A 25-year-study shows a link to psychosis and the severity of psychosis and the use of marijuana. For people who have ever used marijuana, there was a 25 percent increased chance of suffering from this.”
Lindstrom, who has experience in mental health explained that a lot of studies linking use of cannabis to mental disorders are “conflicting” and “unclear.”
“This is the basis for a lot of what I’m presenting tonight,” he said. “One of the things that’s been consistently told to us by the psychiatric community is that using marijuana increases the psychotic and affective. In other words, the behavioral and emotional symptoms after using for people who suffer from mental disorders.”
Lindstrom expressed that he was for medical marijuana but made clear that medicinal and recreational users are two very separate populations, and that we shouldn’t feel comfortable legalizing marijuana with the amount of unclear and conflicting information.
Judy Kahn, Fredonia alumna and secretary of the group, explained she was on the fence but voiced her curiosity about the medical purposes.
“I know there are a lot of pharmaceuticals whose commercials mention side effect after side effect, ‘you may become suicidal, you may become depressed,’ but those drugs are on the market,” she said. “I’d like more research on that because it is possible marijuana could be less harmful than some things that are already being presented.”
At the end of the debate, the room voted in favor of the legalization of marijuana 11-2.