MPP’s Aaron Houston debates former DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1010175323

Good job by Aaron Houston, pointing out the $14 billion in revenue, more 10th graders smoke pot than tobacco, and that DEA’s way hasn’t worked.  I think it would be better if those points were shorter and tied together with something a talk radio pro taught me called the “Why do I give a shit?” angle.  Simply put, to get your point across to the audience, you have to hook them with something that affects them personally.

Here’s how it might work:

• “…Milton Friedman and 500 Harvard economists said that legal marijuana could bring in $14 billion.  Mr. Hutchinson, that’s enough money to bail out Detroit and save some American jobs!  That’s enough money to fix the levees in New Orleans or provide health care to every kid in America!  Can we really afford to keep arresting people for smoking pot?”
• “…more 10th graders smoke pot than tobacco, because we figured out that checking ID’s, curbing advertising, and educating kids with honest facts about cigarettes made them naturally want to quit.  I don’t want teens using pot any more than you do, Mr. Hutchinson, so why don’t we take what worked with a really dangerous addictive drug like cigarettes and apply that to a weed that is as addictive as coffee?
• “…Mr. Hutchinson, we’ve tried it your way and it hasn’t worked, but what it has done is locked up more people in the Land of the Free than any other nation, even Communist China and Putin’s Russia.  A legal marijuana and hemp industry would not only create jobs other than prison guard, but save family farms, struggling timber towns, and bring in tax revenue to local communities.  Mr. Hutchinson, if the government can regulate, control, and profit from cigarettes and 151-proof rum, why not marijuana?

Now for two low hanging softballs that must be crushed out of the park every time they are uttered.  The only impediment to getting the average reasonable on-the-fence non-toking citizen to our side is the “What about the children?” angle.  This is the corollary to the “Why do I give a shit?” angle, because the #1 thing people give a shit about is their kids.  The primary fear to address is ”if I support the potheads, my kids will turn into potheads!”:

“Marijuana a stepping stone / gateway to other harder drugs.”

“Shame on you, Mr. Hutchinson, for trying to muddy this discussion of marijuana by scaring people about cocaine and heroin!  The myth of the ‘gateway theory’ has been debunked by the government’s own Institute of Medicine in 1999.  The only thing marijuana has in common with cocaine and heroin is that they are all illegal.  You know why nobody calls alcohol a ‘gateway drug’?  Because it’s not sold on a shelf next to cocaine and heroin.”

“When you legalize a substance, the use of that substance always goes up.”

“That’s flat-out wrong.  The Netherlands, with its tolerance of cannabis coffee shops, has not only half the rate of teen and adult use of cannabis compared to America, they also have lower rates of use and addiction to hard drugs.  And here in America, thirteen states have legalized the medical use of marijuana and teen use of marijuana has declined in those states.  It’s funny, Mr. Hutchinson, that you would claim the decrease in teen marijuana use this decade has something to do with arresting people, and not because since 1996 some states have legalized pot.”

Somewhere along the line I think I would’ve thrown in “Mr. Hutchinson, when marijuana is made legal, will you smoke it?  If ”