Listen: 46:42 min 46:42 min (Download Audio 21.4 MB)

Two police chiefs — former San Jose Police Chief Joseph McNamara and Pleasant Hill Police Chief Pete Dunbar — faced off over legalizing marijuana in California in a Thursday webinar.

Some 60 individuals joined the San Francisco Chronicle/SFGate.com online/telephone discussion to listen and ask questions about the societal consequences if voters pass Prop. 19 on the November ballot. You can listen too. Just click on the icon above.

McNamara is currently a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, and Dunbar is a member of the California Police Chiefs Association. Dana Sherne, a summer intern at SFGate.com, moderated the discussion.

Each gave his view on these five questions, and then took questions from listeners:

1. Will legalizing marijuana increase the number of people using marijuana?

2. Is that a problem?

3. Will legalizing marijuana help address the injustice that, while studies show more whites use marijuana than other racial groups, more African Americans and Latinos are arrested and incarcerated for marijuana use?

4. Will legalization end the black market for pot and the violence it engenders?

5. If Prop. 19 passes, and less taxpayer money is spent on marijuana busts and canabis-related incarcerations, where will those funds go? Will more public money be expended on addiction treatment?