For more than 30 years, Alaska was the only state in the U.S. in which it was legal -- under some circumstances -- to smoke marijuana for the fun of it.
Then Colorado and Washington voters last November passed initiatives legalizing cannabis for adults and setting up systems of production, sales and taxation.
Now backers of a legalization initiative in Alaska say they are moving toward making the same change there, reports the Anchorage Daily News. The group is about halfway to reaching their goal of 45,000 signatures by December 1, about 15,000 more than the number required to get the measure on next year's primary election ballot, according to main sponsor Timothy Hinterberger.
"In a free society, prohibition of popular substances is just bad public policy," Hinterberger said.
The initiative would add a seven-page statute to the books in Alaska, legalizing marijuana for adults and setting up a state regulatory body to oversee cannabis farms, dealers and advertising.
The initiative would impose a hefty $50 per ounce excise tax that would be collected between the greenhouse and the store or factory.
Employers would still be allowed to prohibit their workers from smoking or possession at work, and prevent employees from being high while on duty. Driving under the influence of cannabis would still be illegal, and local governments could outlaw growing and sales -- but not possession.
Police would have to stop their current practice of seizing small amounts of pot when they find it. The measure would authorize retail pot shops, but not parlors or bars; that is to say, on-site consumption would be prohibited at the shops.
The legalization measure has been gaining support since Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell on June 14 ruled that the initiative could proceed to the signature-gathering phase. The August 29 Justice Department announcement that it wouldn't sue to stop legalization laws in states which legalize cannabis added momentum to the cause.
"I've had a lot of people talk to me about that since then," Hinterberger said. "I think that shows that we are on the right track in thinking that things are really changing, both in federal policy as well as in public sentiment. It eliminates one of the arguments you sometimes hear against an initiative like ours -- it doesn't matter what we do locally as a state because the feds will step in."
The advisory, while noting that marijuana is still a "serious crime," directs federal law enforcement authorities on the local level to focus on larger priorities, not simple possession or legalized marijuana grow and sale operations. In the case of states which have legalized pot, the Justice Department expects them to prevent interstate sales.
After Alaska voters in 1972 passed one of the most important amendments to the state constitution -- a right to privacy -- Homer resident Irwin Ravin arranged for police to arrest him with two joints in his pocket.
The Alaska Supreme Court dismissed Ravin's case in 1975, making Alaska the only state with legalized marijuana. The court ruled 5-0 that the state law banning cannabis possession violated the newly approved right of privacy, at least for small amounts inside a person's home.
The state could still ban the use of pot in public or by minors, the court said, and could restrict the sales and quantity, but not private possession. In 1982, the Legislature set the legalized "small amount" at four ounces or four plants; anything more than that was a misdemeanor.
But with the War On Drugs coming to Alaska during the Reagan years, the state Senate, then dominated by the GOP, wanted to recriminalize. Legalization opponents sponsored a ballot measure in the 1990 general election which restored criminal penalties for possession of any amount of pot. It won with 54 percent of the vote.
In 2003, the Alaska Court of Appeals ruled that law was unconstitutional. The Alaska Supreme Court refused to hear it, letting the Court of Appeals decision stand.
Gov. Frank Murkowski, in office from 2002 to 2006, vowed to recriminalize pot AGAIN, and directed the Legislature to pass a new law criminalizing all pot possession. The law passed in 2006 and was quickly struck down by a Juneau Superior Court judge.
The Alaska Supreme Court ruled that the judge had acted prematurely, since nobody had been arrested yet. But apparently nobody has since, and that's where the law stands now: a ban on possession of small quantities is still the law, but the law is clearly unconstitutional, according to Joshua Decker, acting executive director of the ACLU of Alaska.
If officers encounter a small quantity of marijuana, according to Anchorage Police Chief Mark Mew, they will seize it as contraband and eventually destroy it, but the Ravin decision effectively blocks the state from prosecuting possession cases involving less than four ounces.
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