Pubdate: Mon, 16 Oct 2000
Source: Reuters
Copyright: 2000 Reuters Limited.
Author: Yereth Rosen

ALASKA VOTERS TO CONSIDER HEMP LEGALIZATION

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Forget the giant marijuana leaf painted
outside campaign headquarters in Anchorage's eclectic Spenard district, the
back issues of ``High Times'' in the front office and the poster on the
wall of the late Jimi Hendrix puffing on a joint.

The ballot question on legalizing hemp and marijuana in Alaska, contrary to
critics' claims, is not about giving potheads free license to get stoned --
or so says a leader in the campaign to pass the initiative.

``It's a civil liberties issue. If someone wants to grow a crop in their
garden that's no more harmful than dandelions they should be allowed to,''
Al Anders, chairman of Free Hemp in Alaska, the most prominent of the four
groups campaigning for the measure, said in a radio debate. Until voters
recriminalized it in 1990, possession of up to four ounces for personal use
was legal in Alaska, notwithstanding the federal government's disapproval.
Now the state should reclaim that live-and-let-live heritage, Anders said
from campaign headquarters in a shabby mini-mall across a parking lot from
one of Alaska's busiest and rowdiest bars.

``It's a states-rights issue,'' said Anders, a Libertarian Party activist.
``It's a right to privacy and the right to privacy is not being respected
by the federal government.''

Among other provisions, the measure would grant immunity to people
convicted in the past of marijuana offences -- ''Prisoners of War,'' in the
words of Free Hemp in Alaska's campaign literature -- or victims of the
federal war on drugs.

Others working for the measure say the cannabis plant has been unfairly
vilified and Alaskans should be free to grow it and explore its beneficial
uses as people do in 22 countries.

``There's 50,000 uses and everyone tries to focus on only one of them,''
said Wanda Carp, treasurer of Hemp 2000, another advocacy group campaigning
for legalization.

Variety Of Products

At her downtown Anchorage office, she displays a sample of hemp insulation,
rubbing it on her face to show that it is non-irritating, and photographs
of a house built from hemp in South Dakota. The office also has a tiny shop
selling items such as hemp-seed candies and hemp oil, lip balm and
clothing.

Carp believes hemp could be a successful crop in the small farmbelt of
Alaska's Matanuska-Susitna Borough north of Anchorage, where her family
homesteaded. The hemp seed, she said, is a marvelous protein source that
can aid victims of tuberculosis, a disease that lingers in parts of rural
Alaska.

Unfortunately, she said, ``You can't grow a stick out of the ground without
getting a leaf on it,'' and the leaf is what upsets law-enforcement
officials.

The Alaska marijuana debate has long been intertwined with the state
constitution's protection for privacy and with residents' self-image as
rugged individualists. Thanks to a 1975 state Supreme Court ruling,
possession and use of up to four ounces of marijuana in the privacy of
one's home was legal here for several years. The court said individual
rights outweighed any state interest in banning marijuana use.

``Our territory and now state has traditionally been the home of people who
prize their individuality and who have chosen to settle or to continue
living here in order to achieve a measure of control over their own
lifestyles which is now virtually unattainable in many of our sister
states,'' said the now-famous court ruling.

The 1990 ballot initiative that recriminalized marijuana passed 54 percent
to 46 percent. Despite the vote, illegal marijuana crops continued to
flourish in home greenhouses, especially in the anti-establishment hotbeds
of the Matanuska-Susitna and Fairbanks areas.

Attitudes about marijuana have softened In the past decade, said
Anchorage-based pollster and political consultant Ivan Moore. Evidence of
that, he said, is the passage of a 1998 ballot initiative that legalized
medical marijuana use.

But the sweeping nature of this year's hemp initiative, which was placed on
the ballot by citizen petition, has drawn a wide array of opponents. It
would turn Alaska into ``Dope, U.S.A.,'' said the arch-conservative Voice
of the Times, the editorial remnant of the defunct Anchorage Times that
still runs in the Anchorage Daily News.

``Unfortunately, were it to pass, Alaska would become heaven on Earth for
dopers who would flock here from all over,'' the column editorialized.

Conflict With Federal Government

Wev Shea, a Republican activist, Anchorage attorney and former federal
prosecutor, says legalization in Alaska could harm joint law enforcement
efforts with the federal government. He is skeptical of claims about hemp's
benefits.

``This is not about hemp. There is not a hemp-garment industry that's going
to be coming into play in Alaska, nor is there going to be any large hemp
crop in Alaska,'' he said in the radio debate with Anders.

Also against it is Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles, although he opposed the
1990 recriminalization measure as heavy-handed. He considers the initiative
to be full of flaws, starting with the amnesty provision, said press
secretary Bob King.

``There's a lot in this initiative that people aren't aware of,'' King
said.

Moore said he is unsure how the hemp measure will fare in next month's
voting, in part because it is overshadowed by a louder debate over a more
significant issue, a proposed statewide property tax cap.

He said there are some good arguments in favor of broader legalization
``It's a natural substance. It has therapeutic qualities. And it doesn't
kill you, like alcohol and tobacco.''

But it is probably a mistake for proponents to aim their campaign at the
``drug culture,'' he said, ``although there's certainly a slice of the
population that will respond to that.''

Anders makes no apologies for his group's approach. ``The nice thing is
everybody in Alaska knows somebody who smokes pot,'' he said. ``Would they
turn their friends in if the issue fails? If the answer is no, then they
really should vote yes.''
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MAP posted-by: Eric Ernst