Tuesday's debate at Vincennes University regarding marijuana legalization in Indiana ignited quite the response from a rowdy audience that filled nearly every seat in the Red Skelton Performing Arts Center.
Most of the cheers and comments were enthusiastically in support of the duo representing the for-legalization standpoint: attorney and activist Stephen Dillon and VU English professor Mike Mullen.
They were arguably the crowd favorites amongst the sea of students who Mullen postulated were probably there to get extra credit for their classes, though that didn't seem to stop them from becoming actively — and vocally — engaged in responding to the speakers' stances.
But on the opposite side of the stage, Knox County Sheriff Mike Morris and VU sociology professor Rob Evans held their ground, fielding the good-natured boos with their own counterpoints.
“I didn't know they'd be quite so vocal,” Evans said after the debate, which was sponsored by VU's Center for Research and Learning. “I was prepared for that, but maybe a little surprised by it. I think I went into this with the expectation that students were going to support legalization, but I hoped they'd keep an open mind, which I felt like they did.”
Evans, who is also a certified drug and alcohol counselor and the CRL's associate director, focused on four main reasons why marijuana should not be legalized: employment implications, public safety issues, mental health effects and legalization's inability to decrease prison populations.
He spent a fair amount of time discussing employment implications, pointing out that it's a company's right to test employees for marijuana and that a positivist drug test is an “absolute deal-breaker” for people pursuing well-paying careers.
“Legalization does nothing but relegate you to a low-end job and that's not what's in your best interest,” Evans said.
He also indicated that even if an employee has a medical marijuana card, it can still cause issues. For example, if that individual is injured on the job, they'll undergo a drug test as part of the workers' compensation procedure and if he or she tests positive, they'll be denied benefits.
Evans followed that up by saying that the government doesn't make those decisions; they fall to the private sector, to companies such as Toyota that help bring in jobs to Indiana.
“I urge you to consider what's going to happen to our state when we don't attract jobs,” he said.
Evans also underscored the mental health effects that marijuana can have, a subject he's familiar with first-hand through his drug and alcohol counseling and education.
“Marijuana is not a completely safe drug,” he said. “It clearly does cloud people's thinking and it does affect people's ability to make good judgements. Let's not say it's completely harmless.”
He referenced a study conducted over a 10-year period that indicated marijuana use resulted in clear declines in academic performance and he also highlighted the correlation between marijuana use and adverse mental health effects.
“Marijuana does not cause schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, but what marijuana does, and this is well-established, is it makes them more likely to have a psychotic episode or psychotic break,” he said.
Morris focused on the law enforcement side of the issue during the debate.
In response to Dillon's statement that law enforcement should use their time and resources concentrating on more severe drug abuse problems, Morris stated that the sheriff's department has arrested only 38 people for marijuana possession from Jan. 1 through yesterday.
And during that same nine-month period, he said the department has had many, many more methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and other arrests than marijuana-related arrests.
The sheriff also explained that the law is the law, and it's his job to make sure people follow it.
“As a police officer in the state of Indiana, you take an oath to serve and protect and that's through state statutes, whether you agree with them or not,” Morris said. “But as long as there are state statutes, they will be enforced.”
He and Evans' comments stirred up more than a few heckling remarks and negative feedback, but one VU student said that was to be expected amongst a crowd of college students.
“I believe that before the debate even began, it was pretty clear most people were here for legalization,” said Vincennes native Veda Moore.
Nonetheless, Morris said these types of debates, spirited as they might be, are great ways to get people thinking about important, hot-topic issues.
“This is going to get bigger, and that's OK. That's why we live in the society we live in,” he said.
Dallas Sylvester, a VU student from Vincennes, didn't see a clear winner emerging from the debate but fellow student and Bluffton native Katie Runyon did.
“Although the majority of the support was for legalization, I think that everyone against won because marijuana is still illegal,” she said.