Pubdate: Tue,  3 Oct 2000
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright: 2000 The Dallas Morning News
Contact:  P.O. Box 655237, Dallas, Texas 75265
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Author: Stuart Eskenazi, The Seattle Times
Note: The complete Seattle times article is on-line at
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1460/a02.html

ALASKA INITIATIVE JUST SAYS 'YES!' TO MARIJUANA USE

ANCHORAGE -- The folks behind a statewide ballot initiative to decriminalize
marijuana in Alaska will sermonize on the commercial uses for industrial
hemp, the environmental benefits of hemp production and the medicinal
benefits of the cannabis plant.

And sure, the Nov. 7 measure is about all of those things.

Mostly, though, it's about the freedom to get stoned.

"In most places, you have to pass a pee test in order to work there," says
Soren Wuerth, a former head of the Alaska Green Party who works at the Free
Hemp in Alaska campaign office in Anchorage. "In our place, you have to fail
the pee test to work here."

Efforts to change laws, whatever they may be, tend to focus on incremental
steps. But instead of adopting a deliberate strategy, backers of the Alaska
marijuana initiative have declared anarchy.

The initiative is so sweeping -- it not only would legalize pot for personal
use but grant amnesty to anyone with marijuana convictions -- that even the
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and High Times
magazine were slow to support the measure.

At the Free Hemp in Alaska campaign office, some volunteers and paid workers
come to work high and a few loiter near a back door to sneak tokes, even
though campaign protocol prohibits such behavior. A yellow mural on the
building has an image of a giant green cannabis leaf and reads, "Vote Yes.
Nov. 7, 2000."

If the initiative passes, Alaska will be the only state to legalize
marijuana consumption, possession, distribution and cultivation for personal
use, practiced in private. "Our law wouldn't protect you if you are caught
smoking in a car, but it would protect you if you are driving it to a
friend's house to smoke," said Al Anders, chairman of Free Hemp in Alaska.
The law would apply to anyone 18 and older, even though Alaskans aren't
allowed to buy cigarettes until they are 19 or alcohol until 21. It would
release any Alaskan behind bars for a marijuana-related crime and clear the
criminal records of those with past convictions. And it would convene a
panel to consider restitution to those who have been imprisoned.

Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles opposes the measure. A former U.S. attorney for
Alaska, Wev Shea, is campaigning against it.

"If marijuana is legalized, it becomes socially acceptable, and once it
becomes socially acceptable, a lot more people are going to try it," Mr.
Shea said. "If this passes, what is going to be the perception of Alaska?
That we all just sit around and smoke dope?"

The section of the initiative that prohibits state or local law-enforcement
agencies from working on marijuana cases would shackle all drug-enforcement
efforts, Mr. Shea said.

"If this passes, Alaska is going to basically be the drug haven of North
America," he said.

Political consultants in Alaska say the measure has a good shot at passing,
helped by a predicted high turnout for the presidential race and a
high-profile property-tax-limit initiative. And people on both sides of the
issue agree: Alaskans are herb-friendly.

Marijuana for private, recreational use was once legal in Alaska. In 1975,
the state Supreme Court extended the constitutional right to privacy to
marijuana use. In 1983, however, the Legislature limited amounts protected
under the law to 4 ounces or less. And in 1990, voters passed an initiative
that made marijuana illegal again.

Two years ago, Alaskans voted overwhelmingly to legalize marijuana use for
medical patients.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk