[Cooper:] We're digging deeper tonight with our special, "America's High: The Case for and Against Pot." It's a debate that stirs up strong words and feelings, and each side uses science to support its position. Each side's different medical claims. Both sides claim the moral advantage. Something almost everyone can agree on: the issue is certainly complicated. It has many layers. We'll try to strip away some of them tonight. Joining me now is Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, a group that supports legalization of marijuana. Also David Evans, special advisor to the Drug-Free America Foundation. He opposes legalizing pot. Appreciate both of you being with us. Rob, let's start with you. You just heard the report from Dan Simon, how easy is it to get medical marijuana in California. Why is it necessary, though? The DEA says there's a prescription drug, Marinol, that relieves the side effects that are associated with chemotherapy and assists with loss of appetite, and so you don't need to be smoking pot.
[Rob Kampia, Marijuana Policy Project:] That question should be up to the doctor and the patient. Marinol, the prescription pill, it doesn't work for everyone. And in fact, the Marinol pill is 100 percent THC. It's the ingredient that gets you high. Whereas marijuana is an amalgam of ingredients, one of which is
[Thc. Cooper:] David, do you buy that?
[David Evans, Special Advisor, Drug-free America Foundation:] I don't completely buy that. I think, you know, this kind of debate, this debate really needs to be settled by the Food and Drug Administration. We've had a drug approval process for 100 years that's protected us. Let the FDA sort it all out. Rob Kampia doesn't want it to go to the FDA. He wants it to go to state legislatures to make a decision, because he can influence it there using political and emotional arguments.
[Kampia:] That is not true.
[Evans:] The FDA will base it on science. And that's where it should go.
[Cooper:] Well, Rob, what about that? Do you why shouldn't the FDA be involved? The AMA right now basically has said there's not enough studies to show that medical marijuana has a good effect.
[Kampia:] We would love to move marijuana through the FDA approval process. Unfortunately, the federal government has a monopoly on the supply of marijuana, so they make it very difficult to obtain it from their farm in Mississippi. Furthermore, advocates on our side have actually tried to produce their own DEA-approved private supply of marijuana for FDA research, and the DEA keeps blocking that private production facility. So as a result, we've been able to do some research to show that marijuana has medical value for AIDS, cancer, MS pain, but not enough studies to move it all the way through the FDA approval process.
[Cooper:] David, there's a lot of people I talked to people at this dispensary who say, look, you know, institutional medicine doesn't want research into this, because they're not going to be able to make money off of cannabis if it's sold in smoking form.
[Evans:] Well, that's a completely false argument. There are already two FDA-approved cannabinoid drugs, Cesamet and Marinol. They've been approved. There's one in the works right now called Sativix. There's a lot of studies that have been done on marijuana, plus and minus, in terms of its effect on the human body. There's a lot of them. I mean, I can show anybody who wants hundreds of studies that have been done on it.
[Cooper:] Rob, I know you also say, well, there are studies that support your position. In terms of legalization of marijuana, a lot of people who are against medical marijuana say that, basically, what you really want is legalization, and this is just the first step in that.
[Kampia:] Well, it is true that what we really want is to end marijuana prohibition. There's three really good reasons for that. One is that prohibition hasn't prevented people from using marijuana, since it was first enacted 72 years ago. So it's time for a new approach. Two, it's better to have regulated establishments growing and selling marijuana and paying taxes, rather than drug dealers and cartels doing it and not paying taxes. And third, the police have better things to spend their time on to be sniffing under people's doors and arresting 872,000 marijuana users and growers a year.
[Cooper:] Dave, what about that? Something like more than 40 percent of a lot of police arrests are for for marijuana. Is that really the best use?
[Evans:] I have been a criminal defense attorney for 34 years. Usually, when somebody gets busted for pot, they're busted for some other offense, and when they search them, they find pot on them. And it's just not true that people with small amounts of pot are going to prison, that sort of thing.
[Cooper:] What about the argument for taxing it?
[Evans:] Let's look at the model of alcohol and tobacco. I mean, when you look at the cost to our society of alcohol and tobacco in terms of health-care costs, crime, trauma, accidents, work-place losses, those costs don't any come close to the amount of money that we would get in taxes.
[Cooper:] But you're saying even though we'd get more money in taxes, there would be other side effects?
[Evans:] If we legalize marijuana, marijuana use is going to go up. Madison Avenue will get involved. They'll try to create their market. They'll push it to kids, like they do alcohol and tobacco right now. More people will use it. Social costs will go up, and we're going to have a lot of trouble paying for it.
[Cooper:] Rob, quickly, your response to that?
[Kampia:] The big difference between marijuana and tobacco and alcohol is that marijuana is vastly safer. Marijuana is impossible to overdose on it, and it's not physically addictive. So when we're actually talking about regulating a product, marijuana should be first in line.
[Cooper:] We've got to leave it there. It's obviously a debate we could do this for hours. Rob Kampia, appreciate your perspective.
[Kampia:] Thank you.
[Cooper:] David Evans, as well. A lot of people weighing in on the blog. Let us know what you think at AC360.com. We'll talk about this all week. Coming up next, apology accepted. Sarah Palin reacts to David Letterman's mea culpa. Will she have the last word? And an incredible rescue story. What happened when this little boy thought this little puppy needed a bath? You're not going to believe this. We'll be right back.