RENO –– Beneath the inquiring intellects about 100 Reno locals, the war on drugs took the center stage in the Siena Hotel and Casino ballroom Friday morning.

Washoe County District Attorney Dick Gammick and former University of Nevada School of Medicine professor, Stephen Frye were its mouthpieces.

“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” Frye said grandly from the podium. “The war on drugs deprives us of all these things.”

He then began to make an impassioned and statistics-driven argument for the legalization of currently contraband drugs. The 22-minute petition was gleaned from the book he authored after many years of post-retirement research.

Gammick, a man who approached the topic from a criminal prosecution perspective, was not about to let Frye’s argument stand.

“Why legalize drugs?” Gammick asked the crowd, pacing the stage. “What is the benefit of cocaine? Of Methamphetamine? Of LSD? How do these help humans?

He then passed around a chilling picture of a woman’s face, her eyes sunken and her skin shriveling through years of meth use.

Frye countered with his expertise on the physical effects of drug use.

“The meth epidemic is a testament to the failure of the drug war,” Frye said. “I’m not in favor of drug use. I am in favor of decreased drug use, that is why I want to legalize.”

The barbs continued to fly in Spartan style until organizer Ty Cobb opened the floor for audience questions.

Cobb, a former special assistant to President Ronald Reagan and a man well studied in U.S. international political policy, organizes the speeches and presentations around the theme of national security.

“When people are available (to speak), we do them,” Cobb said of the forums.

Taking on issues such as Iran-Israeli relations, Mexican drug cartels and nuclear policy, the forums provide a place for both education and debate.

Friday’s event took on a divisive topic that governments worldwide struggle with. While neither Gammick nor Frye declared formal victory in the drug-legalization argument arena, many in the mostly male and all white crowd seemed swayed toward legalization.

“In these economic times, I don’t see the wisdom in using $20,000 per year to incarcerate someone when that money could be used for schools,” said audience member Mark Glenn.

Gammick countered with a response about who the District Attorney’s Office targets.

“What we are targeting for prison are the sellers,” Gammick said.

Both parties seemed to hit a sticking point in a statistic on the percentage of prisoners who are arrested for simple possession of marijuana. Frye claimed that 89 percent of all drug incarcerations are based on simple possession alone. Gammick claimed that in a Washoe County study only three people were locked up for simple possession. The rest had additional charges on their records including trafficking, armed robberies and burglaries.

The discussion went on through a question and answer session and a simple poll of the audience. Cobb, as the mediator, asked audience members to raise their hands if they were in favor of decriminalizing drug use in the United States. A little more than half raised their hands. The results were significantly more split however, when Cobb asked how many would approve of legalizing drugs in the United States. Almost half raised their hands.

These and other debates will continue both at the National Security forums as well as in the halls of political decision making.

For now, Cobb is content with the discussion.

The informal group started about three years ago at the old Gold n’ Silver Inn with about 25 people. Friday, the total attendance topped 100.

“You have to RSVP and that is how we keep a fairly good count of attendance,” Cobb said. He added that the group does not have a scheduled meeting date, but rather that the forums occur whenever he can manage to get a speaker.

On Aug. 16, Marisa Randazzo will address the group. Randazzo has more than a decade of experience with the U.S. Secret Service as the agency’s Chief Research Psychologist. She also directed all Secret Service research on school shootings, insider threats stalking and other types of targeted violence.