Currently the python package amqp runs in debug mode when nova is in debug mode. When specifying debug level logs in nova generally we are trying to debug nova not its dependencies. So by default amqp and other python dependencies shouldn't be running in debug mode when nova is.
http://logs.openstack.org/47/36947/5/check/gate-tempest-devstack-vm-full/37958/logs/screen-n-sch.txt.gz
2013-07-31 20:52:43.207 28626 DEBUG amqp [-] Start from server, version: 0.9, properties: {u'information': u'Licensed under the MPL. See http://www.rabbitmq.com/', u'product': u'RabbitMQ', u'copyright': u'Copyright (C) 2007-2011 VMware, Inc.', u'capabilities': {u'exchange_exchange_bindings': True, u'consumer_cancel_notify': True, u'publisher_confirms': True, u'basic.nack': True}, u'platform': u'Erlang/OTP', u'version': u'2.7.1'}, mechanisms: [u'PLAIN', u'AMQPLAIN'], locales: [u'en_US'] _start /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/amqp/connection.py:706
2013-07-31 20:52:43.208 28626 DEBUG amqp [-] Open OK! _open_ok /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/amqp/connection.py:592
2013-07-31 20:52:43.208 28626 DEBUG amqp [-] using channel_id: 1 __init__ /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/amqp/channel.py:70
2013-07-31 20:52:43.208 28626 DEBUG amqp [-] Channel open _open_ok /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/amqp/channel.py:420
mmm, arguably when running in debug we should snarf as much as possible because the fault might not be in nova.
Separately, I would love it if we could make switching in/out of debug mode not require service restarts.