Alaska Measure to Recriminalize Marijuana Headed for Hearings Next Week

[ReformMaryJaneLaws]

Alaska Measure to Recriminalize Marijuana Headed for Hearings Next Week 3/18/05
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/379/alaska.shtml

Thanks to rulings by the state Court of Appeals and Supreme Court, Alaska is the only state in the union to have legalized the possession of up to four ounces of marijuana in one's home. It is also a state where there is strong popular sentiment in favor of the outright legalization of marijuana, as evidenced by last fall's regulation initiative, which was defeated, but still gained the support of 44% of voters.

This state of affairs sticks in the craw of Republican Gov. Frank Murkowski and the state's law enforcement establishment, and in January Murkowski introduced a bill to recriminalize the possession of marijuana, and incidentally, increase penalties for a number of marijuana offenses. The state Senate Health Education and Social Services Committee has set hearings for next Tuesday and Thursday, and drug reformers are scrambling to ensure that legislators get more than a one-sided attack on marijuana.

That is certainly what Gov. Murkowski and his allies in the legislature have in mind. The bill presented to the legislature contains in its preamble a lengthy list of alleged dangers from marijuana that is right out of the US drug czar's playbook. Marijuana is more potent than before, the bill finds, and it "has many adverse health and social effects, and there is it evidence it has addictive properties similar to heroin." While the list of alleged marijuana-related problems is lengthy, the governor's bottom line is that "the legislature finds that marijuana poses a threat to the public health that justifies prohibiting its use and possession in this state, even by adults in private."

That language is a direct reference to the Alaska Supreme Court and Court of Appeals decisions, beginning with Ravin in 1975, that found the harms from marijuana to be so minimal as to allow its private home use by adults to be protected by the state constitution's privacy provisions. The Ravin decision was the law of the land in Alaska until 1990, when Alaskans in a referendum voted to recriminalize the plant. But a popular vote does not trump the state constitution, and while it took 13 years for a case to challenge the 1990 vote to make its way to the state's high courts, once it did, Alaska jurists reaffirmed their earlier ruling in Ravin.

For a state political establishment grasping at straws in its effort to bust pot smokers, Ravin and associated rulings left one last opening: In those cases, the courts weighed the evidence about marijuana's harmfulness and found it to be not especially so, but added that the issue could be revisited in the event that new information on the drug was presented.

As with the 1990 initiative, the passage of a bill recriminalizing marijuana does not trump the state constitution. The bill was written precisely to provoke a court challenge, said Chief Assistant Attorney General Dean Guaneli. "If the bill passes, as we think it will, we expect that someone charged with possession of under four ounces will ask that the case be dismissed based on the state Supreme Court and Court of Appeals decisions," Guaneli explained. "We will then have an opportunity to present to the court the same information we are presenting to the legislature and we will ask the courts to defer to the legislature's judgment that marijuana is something the legislature has good grounds to criminalize. We expect to prevail," he said.

"We get constitutional challenges all the time; the question is whether we think we can win them, and with this bill, we think we can," he told DRCNet. "Alaska's courts have said as early as the 1975 Ravin decision that if things change, the state can come back and ask them to revisit the issue. We believe that things have changed. Not only has marijuana become more potent and thus more dangerous, but the patterns of usage have also changed a lot. In Alaska, half of those people admitted to drug treatment whose primary drug is marijuana are kids aged 12 to 17. We think there is a real problem with youth in Alaska having access to marijuana. We have studies showing that use by Alaska natives in rural villages is three times the national average," Guaneli continued. "We think it is important for the legislature, the public, and the courts to know these facts, and we think they all combine to justify the legislature prohibiting marijuana."

Thus, next week's hearings will be designed to make the case that marijuana is so harmful that Alaska courts must change their minds. While staffers for the Alaska Senate Health Education and Social Services Committee, which will host the hearings, were unable or unwilling to provide a list of witnesses, drug reformers expect the worst and are preparing a counterattack. Last week, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Drug Policy Project sent out an urgent message seeking assistance in combating exaggerated claims of marijuana's dangerousness. Along with the state ACLU, local marijuana activists, and the Marijuana Policy Project (htp://www.mpp.org), the ACLU Drug Policy Project is scrambling to present countervailing witnesses next week.

"We and the ACLU and the folks in Alaska who have been involved in this for a long time have been working together to coordinate strategy and to assemble testimony and witnesses for the hearings," said MPP communications director Bruce Mirken. "We are scrambling to see who is available," he told DRCNet. Given Alaska's remoteness, said Mirken, witnesses may be able to testify by teleconference.

Mirken was not impressed with Murkowski's attempted end-run around the Alaska courts. "This is essentially a strategy to do something completely phony, which is to try to overrule the constitution with a statute. They are trying to create a legal basis to do that by making the preposterous claim that the court decisions don't count anymore because marijuana is somehow different than it was in 1975," he growled. "They are trying to back this phony legislative maneuver with a collection of phony arguments and fabricated facts. What we will do in these hearings is present evidence and testimony that shows these claims to be absolute utter nonsense."

Thirty years after the groundbreaking Ravin decision, Alaska politicians and lawmakers continue to try to overturn it. Next week's hearings are unlikely to be the end of it. Unless Alaska legislators can be convinced to leave well enough alone, Alaska's marijuana policy wars will once again be headed for the courts.

[IndianaToker]

By Andrew Petty, The Juneau Empire
Source: Juneau Empire

Alaska -- A White House official on Wednesday testified to marijuana's dangers during the second hearing of a bill that aims to criminalize Alaskans' possession of more than an ounce of the drug. Researcher David Murray of the White House's Office on National Drug Control Policy told a Senate committee that marijuana users develop serious cases of psychosis and other problems from inhaling doses of carcinogenic chemicals.

"This is a dirty, dirty drug," Murray said. He testified via phone at the request of Assistant Attorney General Dean Guaneli, who is spearheading the governor's bill.

Guaneli said the point of the expert testimonies heard Wednesday and earlier this week was to get evidence on the record and overturn a 2003 Court of Appeals decision that ruled Alaskans can have up to 4 ounces of pot and be protected under a right to privacy law.

If the bill is signed into law, there will be a motion to dismiss the 2003 Court of Appeals case. Then the court must decide to keep the existing law or to enforce the one now being written by the Legislature.

"The Legislature is where the debate belongs," said Guaneli.

Those possessing more than 4 ounces would be charged with a Class C felony and those with an ounce would be charged with a Class A misdemeanor, according to the bill.

John Fielder, a clinical psychologist at St. Mary's Medical Hospital in San Francisco, made a presentation by phone. In his years of experience, the doctor said he has treated many patients he says were addicted to marijuana.

Heath and Social Services Committee Chairman Fred Dyson, R-Eagle River, asked if there was any connection to violence, or whether pot was just a "chill-out" drug.

Fielder said smoking marijuana leads to violent behavior down the road. "If I smoke marijuana, I may not be led to rob a store. But I can lose my job and then be motivated to steal," he said.

When citizens were allowed to speak, many were curious why the experts spoke mostly of marijuana's harmful effects on teenagers and not adults.

"I can't think of a more laudable goal than to keep my children away from smoking pot," said Anchorage father John Fairleigh. "But all this bill wants to do is persecute adult users."

Of the nine Alaskans who phoned in by Legislative Information Offices around the state, all were opposed to the bill, including a retired physician who worked in a Kodiak alcohol treatment center.

"I've known individuals who smoked marijuana and did not go on to harder drugs," he said.

A handful of Republicans called to inform their legislators that Democrats and Greens are not the only ones who oppose the bill and want to legalize the drug.

In November, a voter initiative attempted to legalize and possibly tax marijuana, but the measure failed at 44 percent, or 134,647 votes.

"Somewhere in that number are thousands of Republicans who do not want this bill to pass," said Fairleigh, also a Republican.

"I'm looking forward to going home and telling people why I support this bill," replied Sen. Fred Wilkens, R-Fairbanks.

On April 1, the Senate committee will have a final public commit period before it moves to two more committees. The Alaska Civil Liberties Union is expected to make a presentation, among other opponents of the bill.

Note: Bill would criminalize possession of more than an ounce of drug.

Source: Juneau Empire (AK)
Author: Andrew Petty, The Juneau Empire
Published: March 24, 2005
Copyright: 2005 Southeastern Newspaper Corp
Website: http://www.juneauempire.com/
Contact: letterstotheeditor@juneauempire.com
Link to article: http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread20401.shtml

[IndianaToker]

By Sean Cockerham, Anchorage Daily News
Source: Anchorage Daily News

Juneau, Alaska -- The debate over recriminalizing pot has nerves on edge at the Capitol.

Eagle River Sen. Fred Dyson, whose committee held a hearing on the issue Wednesday, said he wanted an apology for what he called nasty phone calls from people against a bill designed to make pot illegal again.

The crux of Wednesday's debate was whether marijuana is dangerous enough for government to punish its users or if adult Alaskans should keep their right to smoke it in the privacy of their homes.

It's an issue with passionate views on both sides, and it generated tension. Fairbanks Sen. Gary Wilken sharply criticized the head of the state public defenders agency for testifying against the bill in her official position.

"I'm really disappointed in your testimony today. ... I'm shocked," the Fairbanks Republican told Barbara Brink, director of the agency.

The Senate Health and Social Services Committee is holding a series of hearings on Gov. Frank Murkowski's attempt to overrule state court rulings that adult Alaskans have the right to possess up to four ounces of marijuana for personal use in their homes. The bill would also make it much easier to prosecute pot possession as a felony.

The Alaska Supreme Court in September let stand a lower court ruling that at-home adult possession of pot was protected under the strong right to privacy from government interference that is protected under the state constitution.

Murkowski wants the Legislature to pass his Senate Bill 74, which would say lawmakers want marijuana illegal again. That wouldn't be enough to trump the court rulings that pot is protected under the onstitution.

But the governor's strategy is to introduce evidence at the legislative hearings about the harms of pot. That, his aides said, would create a "legislative record" to show the courts that the state has an overriding interest in making all marijuana use illegal in Alaska.

Wednesday's hearing had testimony from a White House drug control specialist and a California psychologist who said marijuana is addictive and damaging both physically and mentally to its users.

Several bill opponents disputed those assertions and argued that good citizens shouldn't get locked up for recreational pot use in their own homes.

Legislators asked for more detail on the studies. But much of the debate is liable to boil down to which experts lawmakers choose to believe.

Wilken said he wanted to hear the rest of the testimony but is already a supporter of the bill. He said in an interview after the hearing that he thinks there's enough evidence of pot's harm.

Dyson charged at the hearing that some of the bill's opponents went too far in calls to his legislative office.

"They've been plugging up our phone lines," Dyson said.

He said callers said they were urged to call in by someone out of state who was paid to do so. Some callers were "nasty and rude" to his staff, Dyson said, so whoever is organizing the effort should apologize.

Former state corrections official Bill Parker said later that his group, Alaskans for Marijuana Regulation and Control, organized a push to get constituents of the committee members to call up and oppose the bill. He said he told Dyson he was sorry if any of them were rude.

"I think getting your constituents to call their legislators is still fair," said Parker, who is also a former Anchorage legislator. "I think it is desirable."

The hearing began with testimony from David Murray, special assistant in the White House office of drug control policy. He asserted that there are more and more medical studies on the dangers of pot.

He said pot is much stronger than in the past, and people are using it at a younger age. It causes health problems, memory loss and emotional changes, and can put people at greater risk of psychotic episodes, he said.

"Young people are particularly susceptible to the things we are seeing," Murray said.

Opponents said they agree that marijuana ought to be illegal for children. But adults, several said, have the right to privacy in their homes and the state should have better things to spend money on then jailing them.

"Please don't criminalize my friends," testified Mako Haggerty of Homer. "They are (good) parents, hard workers and contributing members of our community."

Brink said she's read some of the research and there are problems with the conclusions in the bill. For example, she said, the bill declares there is evidence marijuana "has addictive properties similar to heroin."

Brink also said the bill harshly tightens penalties for marijuana possession when there's evidence that putting people in jail doesn't reduce its use.

She said the bill would make it a class B felony -- punishable by at least a year in jail -- to deliver any amount of marijuana to someone under 21.

That could apply to a 16-year-old passing a joint to a 20-year-old, she said.

The bill would also make possession of more than four ounces a felony offense.

Wilken was upset that Brink said she was testifying on the bill as director of the state public defender's agency, and not just on her own behalf.

"I would think, in your position, that you of all people should be neutral on these issues," Wilken said.

Legislature: Go online for complete legislative coverage and tools for participating in the process.

http://www.adn.com/legislature

Tax Reduction: Gov. Frank Murkowski says a federal tax break could cost the state more than $100 million in lost corporate tax revenue over the next decade.
Bill 74: Debate may rest on which experts lawmakers trust.

Published: March 24, 2005 - Page B-1
Copyright: 2005 The Anchorage Daily News
Contact: letters@adn.com
Website: http://www.adn.com/
Link to article: http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/stirs.htm

[IndianaToker]

By Sean Cockerham, Anchorage Daily News
Source: Anchorage Daily News

Juneau, Alaska -- State officials, desperate to overturn Alaska court rulings that at-home pot is legal here, took their case to the Legislature on Monday.

Assistant attorney general Dean Guaneli told the Senate Health and Social Services Committee that the state has hit a dead end in the courts. The Alaska Supreme Court has refused to hear arguments for criminalizing small amounts of pot, and the governor has made the issue a priority, he said.

"This is the only forum left for this subject," Guaneli told the legislators.

The Senate committee Monday began hearings on Gov. Frank Murkowski's attempt to overrule the court ruling that adult Alaskans have the right to possess up to four ounces of marijuana for personal use in their homes.

"Alaska is unique in that it is the only state in which marijuana use by adults is legal" under state law, Guaneli said, adding that it is still illegal under federal law.

The state Supreme Court in September let stand a lower court ruling that at-home adult possession of pot is protected under the strong right to privacy from government interference guaranteed in the Alaska Constitution.

The governor's strategy is to introduce evidence at the legislative hearings about the harms of pot to create a "legislative record" of expert testimony. The state would then use that record and the Legislature's intent in passing the bill the next time a pot case went to court.

Murkowski's hope is to get the courts to agree the state has an overriding interest in outlawing marijuana in spite of the constitutional protection.

Alaska legislators are not pro-pot, but some were startled Monday at the state's presentation of statistics purporting to link marijuana to violent crime.

"I used to understand that smoking grass made people mellow out," said Eagle River Sen. Fred Dyson, a Republican and chairman of the Health and Social Services Committee.

Dyson said he looked forward to hearing the other side's reaction to the statistics. The Alaska Civil Liberties Union and others plan to testify against the bill when the committee hearings on it resume Wednesday.

Bill Parker, former state deputy commissioner of corrections and a former Anchorage legislator, said it is clear marijuana is a nonviolent drug, as opposed to alcohol.

Parker, representing Alaskans for Marijuana Regulation and Control, said his side would have its own experts testifying before the committee.

He said he disputes the state's numbers linking marijuana use to crimes.

State officials Monday asserted that almost 70 percent of males arrested for domestic violence tested positive for marijuana. Juneau Democratic Sen. Kim Elton was skeptical. He pointed out that the tests can detect marijuana use from as long as a month back, weeks before a particular crime might have been committed.

Elton also questioned national statistics that say treatment of teens for marijuana abuse is more prevalent than treatment of teens for alcohol abuse. Elton said he doesn't think that's the case in Alaska. And he wanted more evidence of assertions linking pot and automobile accidents.

But there wasn't much dispute Monday about the state's claims that marijuana is a lot stronger than it used to be. That's a key part of Murkowski's argument; the recent court rulings in favor of at-home pot are based on a 1975 Alaska Supreme Court decision known as Ravin v. State.

The state believes the courts could be influenced by evidence that today's marijuana, especially from the Matanuska-Susitna area and the Kenai Peninsula, is many times more potent than the pot available in 1975.

"My hat's kind of off to these guys for the quality of their product," said Alaska State Trooper Capt. Al Storey, testifying at the committee hearing.

Parker, opposing the governor's bill, said his side would have testimony this week saying people smoke less marijuana when it is stronger. He and other opponents of the bill, which also would make it easier for pot possession to be prosecuted as a felony, said enforcement costs would drain dollars from fighting more serious crimes.

But the state argued that marijuana use is growing among young people and is a problem especially in the rural villages of Alaska. Marijuana use causes health problems and social ills, according to the state.

It's also a big illegal cash cow.

"It is the No. 1 cash crop in Alaska," said Storey, the drug enforcement trooper.

Storey said Alaska produces enough pot for in-state use and export. Alaska exports marijuana to California, Washington, Oregon and Hawaii, he said. It's not unusual for people on the beaches of Hawaii to offer Matanuska-Susitna marijuana for sale, the state trooper said.

"I have to admit we are not real successful in interdicting them," he said.

Copyright: 2005 The Anchorage Daily News
Contact: letters@adn.com
Website: http://www.adn.com/
Link to article: http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/state.htm

[IndianaToker]

By The Associated Press
Source: Associated Press

Anchorage, Alaska -- Two groups are speaking out against a marijuana bill being considered in the House and Senate in Juneau. The groups are the Alaska Civil Liberties Union and Alaskans for Marijuana Regulation and Control. The groups say the intent of Senate Bill 74 and House Bill 96 will be to reduce the right to privacy guaranteed under the Alaska Constitution.

The Civil Liberties Union says the bill would reclassify possession of as little as four ounces of marijuana into a Class C felony.

Possession of an ounce would be a Class A misdemeanor and possession of less than an ounce would be a Class B misdemeanor.

The Civil Liberties Union says the Murkowski administration is trying to criminalize small amounts of marijuana in the home. The group says possession of small amounts is protected under privacy rights in the Alaska Constitution.

Bill Parker, a former state legislator and deputy commission of corrections, says the bill is a bad idea. Parker -- speaking on behalf of Alaskans for Marijuana Regulation and Control -- says it will end up taking money away from prosecuting cases involving more dangerous drugs, like methamphetamine.

Source: Associated Press (Wire)
Published: March 21, 2005
Copyright: 2005 The Associated Press
Link to article: http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread20388.shtml

[Mustard]

If that passes... so much for movin to Alaska... Thanks much for the posts.

[IndianaToker]

By Andrew Petty, The Juneau Empire
Source: Juneau Empire

Alaska -- A representative from the Alaska Civil Liberties Union joined a handful of experts Friday to tell a Senate committee that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol and even tobacco. "There has not been a single case of lung cancer or emphysema triggered by smoking marijuana found in medical literature," said Dr. Lester Grinspoon, an associate professor emeritus at Harvard Medical School who has studied the effects of pot for almost 40 years.

In his assessment, he said the public has been "brainwashed" on the effects of marijuana. Senators reviewing a criminalization bill were hesitant to agree.

The bill would make possession of an ounce of marijuana a misdemeanor. Possession of 4 ounces would be a felony. Currently Alaska courts grant privacy protection to those possessing up to 4 ounces.

Last week a White House drug adviser and others told the committee that marijuana is dangerous and should be criminalized.

The Senate Health, Environment and Social Services Committee approved the bill Friday, but committee chairman Fred Dyson, R-Eagle River, said his vote did not mean he supports the proposal.

"Three of the committee members felt comfortable that it should continue in the process. And I know Sen. (Donald) Olson and I both plan on doing some research," Dyson said.

The bill moves to the Judiciary Committee next and then to the Finance Committee before going to the floor for a vote. The House of Representatives must also review the bill.

Gov. Frank Murkowski is pushing this law to criminalize marijuana and get findings on the record in order to open and overturn a 2003 Court of Appeals case that ruled Alaskans have the right to possess small quantities of marijuana in their homes.

Among the 19 findings in the bill are statements saying that marijuana is more addictive than heroin, it has a dramatically higher potency than before, and it leads smokers to commit violent crimes.

On Friday the AkCLU led a team of opponents who said the bill is based on a framework of evidence that is skewed to one view.

"The court will stand for a paper record of several hundred pages if the result is contrary to the evidence submitted," said Michael MacLeod-Ball, director of AkCLU.

The most debated finding throughout the afternoon was whether an increase in marijuana's potency has led to more addictions and associated problems.

"The marijuana of Cheech and Chong had a THC level of 1.5 percent," said John Bobo, adviser to the office of drug and alcohol policy U.S. Department of Transportation. He claims THC levels of homegrown pot today can be as high as 22 percent to 24 percent.

Mitch Earlewine, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Southern California, said that those high percentages are rare and the national average today is closer to 6 percent.

"When we give people cannabis that has 1 percent in the laboratory, they get a headache and claim it is placebo and they find it inactive and don't want to use it again," said Earlewine. "Obviously this wasn't the case in the 1970s or people wouldn't want to try it again."

Muscular sclerosis sufferer Jim Welch of Eagle River said the potency was a hidden "healthy" benefit: "That means I'm putting less smoke in my lungs."

Kelly Drew, a University of Alaska Fairbanks chemistry professor, phoned in to say that it is unlikely for marijuana to be addictive since it stays in the body's fat cells for about 30 days. Therefore, the body doesn't suffer withdrawal symptoms, she said.

Bobo also said that people under the influence of pot are more likely to commit accidents on the highways. The senators wondered why they haven't heard about marijuana being linked to such highway collisions.

"The media does not want to acknowledge there is a problem," said Assistant Attorney General Dean Guaneli, the bill's sponsor.

Note: Prof who is a 40-year student of the effects of marijuana says public has been brainwashed.

Complete Title: AkCLU, Experts Say Pot Less Harmful Than Alcohol or Cigarettes

Source: Juneau Empire (AK)
Author: Andrew Petty, The Juneau Empire
Published: April 3, 2005
Copyright: 2005 Southeastern Newspaper Corp
Website: http://www.juneauempire.com/
Contact: letterstotheeditor@juneauempire.com
Link to article: http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread20448.shtml

[IndianaToker]

By Steve Andison
Source: Juneau Empire

Alaska -- This is in response to proposed legislation Senate Bill 74 and House Bill 96. My wife and I met in Elfin Cove in 1984 while she was doing whale research. We are both biologists. One year after our marriage she was in a wheelchair due to multiple sclerosis. Today she can barely speak and is virtually a quadriplegic lady with a strong will and mind. Recently she wrote to Alaskans about her medicinal use of marijuana. Though I do not use marijuana, when I saw her suffering from extreme spasticity, pain, loss of vision, and tremors, I became open to the idea of allowing her to.

Nancy had never smoked a cigarette, let alone a joint. I was reluctant to find a source to buy from, but my compassion for her drove me to purchase some. She had difficulty inhaling the irritant; initially it had no effect. With persistence, she finally experienced relief from chronic pain. We had been considering having some tendons severed since no medical approach gave her relief. Her jiggling eyes became still, and she could actually read for the first time in years. She felt like she could "take a vacation" from her MS. Legislators should revisit the history of pharmacology around the world. Should Ritalin be outlawed because it is abused by some? No, Ritalin should be controlled and used responsibly. The list of chemicals that can be either beneficial to quality of life (or detrimental if abused) is long and historic. Western medicine has become quite adept at handling some symptoms, but ignore as "shamanism" anything natural that has not been proven by the American Medical Association in a double blind study. More than 60 percent of our pharmaceuticals were derived from natural sources.

More than 8 percent of the world's population still relies on the natural forms of medicine. Because it is possible for a chemical to be abused does not mean that it should be outlawed. It should be controlled, and society (not politicians) should judge its efficacy. Millions of prescriptions given every year are based on unknown side effects that doctors and pharmacologists cannot explain the etiology of. They don't know why it works; it just does. Due to my stress, I have been prescribed highly addictive drugs. Yet while I have legitimate access to drugs (with addictive properties), I am forced to skulk around in the dark to buy some cannabis to ease my wife's suffering.

As long as young people feel invincible, they will experiment with pot regardless of your laws. As long as compassionate people care for loved ones, they will ignore the higher stakes and purchase it. Filling the jails with these harmless, useful people will do no good. Seeking to study, legitimize, and regulate marijuana's use is the only reasonable course. I do not like to support the flippant and irresponsible use or dealing of drugs. But I have no legal and legitimate access to a natural non-addictive herb to relieve my wife's pain.

I will not stop providing comfort to a loved one. I purchase marijuana for my severely disabled wife, and I administer it to her. You can arrest me, but I will not disclose the source of her marijuana. If you lock me up and withhold Nancy's relief, please make certain that you care for her and understand that she is a quadriplegic with impaired vision, difficulty breathing and speaking, fed by a tube, eliminating urine through a tube, and remember to have her muscle relaxing pump (attached to her spine) refilled every fifty days (so she is not in a painful fetal position). Then please explain to her why, although God gave mankind healing plants, the legislature has vetoed God's intent. When you disconnect her life support (at her end) tell her that the suffering was all worth it for society's salvation from "Reefer Madness" and that I love her.

So give me a break, "Capital Hill," you don't know the history of pharmacology or the integrity of doctors, policepersons, lawyers, judges, and disease sufferers that use marijuana for legitimate and harmless reasons. I admire my wife for speaking up; I applaud her tenacity that gives her strength to battle through challenges that you will never begin to understand, every day of her life.

• Steve Andison is a biologist and Juneau resident.

Complete Title: My Turn: Chance of Abuse Doesn't Mean Drug Should Be Illegal

Source: Juneau Empire (AK)
Author: Steve Andison
Published: April 6, 2005
Copyright: 2005 Southeastern Newspaper Corp
Website: http://www.juneauempire.com/
Contact: letterstotheeditor@juneauempire.com
Link to article: http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread20467.shtml

[IndianaToker]

By David Finkelstein and Bill Parker
Source: Anchorage Daily News

Juneau, Alaska -- At the request of Gov. Frank Murkowski, Alaska legislators are considering twin bills that would put nonviolent marijuana users on a par with adults who possess child pornography or commit incest. Worse, these bills -- House Bill 96 and Senate Bill 74 -- attempt to steamroll Alaskans' right to privacy, while potentially making our state's violent crime problem worse.

These unconstitutional bills are intended to subvert last September's decision by the Alaska Supreme Court, which affirmed that the Alaska Constitution protects the adult possession and use of up to four ounces of marijuana at home. As a result of this decision, Alaska's busy police cannot make arrests unless they have reasonable cause to believe that more than four ounces of marijuana are involved.

But now the governor and certain state legislators are attempting to circumvent Alaskans' right to privacy and drastically increase the penalties for a host of marijuana-related offenses.

According to the Alaska Public Defender Agency, of the 500 marijuana-related misdemeanors that it handles every year, more than half would become felonies if these bills pass. That means overextended police and prosecutors -- and eventually jailers -- would spend a lot more time and money on these cases.

Marijuana's felony status would divert valuable police resources from violent crimes, which we can't afford. Alaska has six times the national average of reported child sexual assaults and 2.4 times the national average of reported rapes. In Anchorage alone, overworked police cannot investigate almost 25 percent of rapes and about 40 percent of crimes against children.

Our state has a serious problem with violent crime, yet Gov. Murkowski and his legislative allies want to divert even more police resources away from investigating and prosecuting these crimes. This proposed legislation would let people who commit rape or assault children go free in order to send the police after nonviolent marijuana users in their own homes.

Does this make any sense to you?

Not only are these bills draconian and illogical, they violate Alaska's constitution, which guarantees the right of privacy that Alaskans hold dear. So Gov. Murkowski is trying to do an end-run around our constitution. To justify this dishonest scheme, he's concocted a completely phony set of justifications, based on the scientifically discredited claim that today's marijuana is so much more potent than what was available 20 or 30 years ago that it's essentially a different and more dangerous drug.

Such a claim is simply preposterous. These assertions about potency and danger -- actually written into the language of the bills -- fly in the face of mountains of scientific data showing that high-potency marijuana has always been available and overall potency has increased only mildly, posing no discernible public health risk. Experts on marijuana and substance abuse, some whom will be heard during the first legislative hearing on the bills March 23, regard the governor's claims as laughable. Unfortunately, the governor seems to have even less interest in facts than he does in Alaska's constitution or our citizens' right to privacy.

Alaska needs marijuana policies built on facts and common sense. We don't need a reckless assault on our privacy based on phony arguments, and we certainly don't need to divert even more of our already overstretched police, court and correctional resources away from prosecuting violent crimes. We can do better than HB 96 and SB 74.

David Finkelstein and Bill Parker are former Alaska state representatives from Anchorage.

Source: Anchorage Daily News (AK)
Author: David Finkelstein and Bill Parker
Published: April 6th, 2005
Copyright: 2005 The Anchorage Daily News
Contact: letters@adn.com
Website: http://www.adn.com/
Link to article: http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/overwhelm.htm

[IndianaToker]

By Sean Cockerham, Anchorage Daily News
Source: Anchorage Daily News

Juneau, Alaska -- Last fall 44 percent of Alaska voters said they wanted all amounts of pot to be legal for adults to use, grow, sell or give away.

They are not likely to find a single member of the Legislature who agrees.

That's a key fact, since the Legislature is now considering Gov. Frank Murkowski's push to again make it illegal for adults to use modest amounts of marijuana in their own homes.

"I'd say I've got my work cut out for me to stop this bill," said Bill Parker, a former Anchorage legislator who, on behalf of Alaskans for Marijuana Regulation and Control, is opposing the governor's effort.

The governor's bill cleared the Senate Health, Education and Social Services Committee last week with little opposition. The House Judiciary Committee will begin hearings on it this morning.

Parker argued that, while the majority of Alaskans don't support full-blown legalization, the fact that 44 percent do indicates Murkowski is out of touch. And, he said, legislators fall back on conventional political wisdom that the safest course is to declare themselves against all drugs.

"The average politician's conclusion is that if you (even) talk about drugs, then people will think that you are for drugs," Parker said.

Crucial elements of the debate, such as the right to privacy in the home and the specific effects of pot, get lost, he said.

Anchorage Republican Rep. Norm Rokeberg said it's not about politics.

"I disagree with those 44 percent, personally, and I believe the proper public policy is to prohibit the possession and use of marijuana," he said.

He said the majority of Alaskans spoke and said they wanted all marijuana illegal.

In 1990 Alaska voters passed an initiative to criminalize the possession of any amount of marijuana. The governor is trying defend that initiative in the courts, Rokeberg said.

The Alaska Supreme Court in September let stand a lower court ruling that adults have the right to possess less than four ounces of pot for personal use in their own homes. The court ruled it is protected under the strong right to privacy in the state constitution.

Murkowski hopes his bill will create a legislative record showing that marijuana is harmful enough that the state's interest in banning it should outweigh the constitutional right to privacy.

The bill would also make possession of more than four ounces of pot a felony crime.

Callers testifying against the bill have reminded lawmakers that many of their constituents favored all-out legalization in last fall's election.

One caller said legislators ought to heed the potential backlash from those voters in their "political calculus" of whether to support the bill.

"I look forward to telling my constituents why I support this bill," Fairbanks Republican Sen. Gary Wilken retorted. "That's my political calculus."

Wilken, who represents a district in which 43 percent of voters favored all-out legalization last fall, said he believes that marijuana is damaging and even the use at home by adults should be illegal.

Juneau Democratic Sen. Kim Elton was the only legislator on the Senate health committee to argue against the governor's bill. Elton represents a district in which 55 percent voted in favor of full legalization.

Elton said he is "slightly out of step" with his constituents in that he does not favor marijuana legalization. But he said he doesn't have a problem with the courts' interpretation that adult at-home use of modest amounts of marijuana is covered under the right to privacy.

Elton said he was worried that enforcement of the governor's anti-pot bill would divert state dollars from what he called the bigger problems of drunk driving and methamphetamine abuse.

Homer Republican Rep. Paul Seaton's district also narrowly favored pot legalization. Seaton said he doesn't want legalization. But neither is he enthusiastic about the governor's plan to crack down on pot.

"I think we've got a lot bigger problems to worry about," Seaton said.

Note: Bill: Alaskans couldn't light up, even in privacy of their own homes.

Newshawk: Mayan
Source: Anchorage Daily News (AK)
Author: Sean Cockerham, Anchorage Daily News
Published: April 8, 2005
Copyright: 2005 The Anchorage Daily News
Contact: letters@adn.com
Website: http://www.adn.com/
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