Newsbrief: Alaska Supreme Court Restricts Marijuana Search Warrants 9/3/04 It's getting tougher and tougher for cops in Alaska to bust people for pot. Since the state Court of Appeals last year reaffirmed a 1975 Supreme Court ruling legalizing the possession of marijuana for personal use in one's own home, striking down a 1990 referendum that overturned the earlier decision, police have been unable to arrest people for possession of less than four ounces in their homes. Now, an August 27 Court of Appeals ruling has law enforcement once again wailing and gnashing teeth. In that ruling, the Court of Appeals held that police cannot seek or execute a search warrant for a person's home for marijuana unless there is reason to believe there are more than four ounces of it. The ruling came in the case of Leo Richardson Crocker Jr., who was charged with "controlled substance misconduct" after police searched his home and found marijuana and grow equipment. A lower court ruled the search warrant should never have been issued because there was no evidence Crocker possessed more than four ounces of marijuana, and the Court of Appeals last week upheld that ruling. Alaska Attorney General Gregg Renkes told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner that the state will appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court. Renkes is "fearful that this will shut down effective investigation of marijuana growing cases," he said. The decision will hamstring police efforts to go after grow-ops, he added. "It will be rare that there will be someone who can provide eyewitness information to the amount of marijuana in a growing operation," Renkes said. "At this point the only way to get a search warrant is for someone to testify to the size of the crop." That a search warrant cannot be issued for a legal substance -- less than four ounces of marijuana -- would seem an eminently logical conclusion. But Alaska law enforcement officials remain recalcitrant about obeying the ruling of the state's highest courts on marijuana. Although the state Supreme Court last year clearly held that possession within one's home is legal, Renkes continues to maintain, publicly as well as in arguing court cases, that they didn't really do that. Instead, Renkes claims, the Supreme Court decision merely provided people with an affirmative defense if they were arrested. Since marijuana possession is still a crime, Renkes' argument goes, search warrants can and should be issued for possession of any amount. The Court of Appeals wasn't buying. "We addressed and rejected this same argument in our opinion on rehearing in Noy [last year's Court of Appeals ruling]: Ravin [the 1975 Supreme Court decision] did not create an affirmative defense that defendants might raise, on a case-by-case basis, when they were prosecuted for possessing marijuana in their home for personal use," the Court of Appeals opinion said. "The Alaska Supreme Court has repeatedly and consistently characterized the Ravin decision as announcing a constitutional limitation on the government's authority to enact legislation prohibiting the possession of marijuana in the privacy of ones home. Accordingly, we reject the State's suggestion that Ravin left Alaska's marijuana statutes intact..." So, at least for now, the people of Alaska are secure in their homes and possessions from search warrants based on the possession of legal amounts of marijuana. Too bad it takes appeals court rulings to instruct the attorney general to follow the law. And from the looks of it, at least one more Supreme Court ruling before he and his minions get completely over it. The Court of Appeals decision in State v. Crocker is available at http://touchngo.com/ap/html/ap-1949.htm online. http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/352/alaska.shtml
Marijuana legalization group tries a new strategy [size=-1]Pro-pot side offers 'professional' ads, well-chosen speakers[/size] [size=-1]By TATABOLINE BRANT Anchorage Daily News (Published: September 23, 2004) <SCRIPT language=JavaScript>var topjobs=["/classified/employment/401/v-top_jobs_box/story/5594257p-5526152c.html|ALASKA USA FEDERAL CREDIT UNION: Sales Manager West Northern Lights ","/classified/employment/401/v-top_jobs_box/story/5594256p-5526041c.html|Executive Secretary, US Geological Survey. 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This time around, organizers are asking less of voters in an attempt to make the measure more appealing in the Nov. 2 election. They also have enlisted a more carefully selected group of spokespeople to help make their pitch, including a biomedical professor, a former high-ranking state corrections officer and a prominent Republican Party official. The statewide campaign, which includes television and radio spots and a push to get supporters registered to vote by the Oct. 3 deadline, has some opponents worried. </STORYBODY> "The legalizers have done a good job this time," said former U.S. Attorney Wev Shea, who backed a 1990 initiative to criminalize pot in Alaska and was also a key spokesman against legalization in 2000. "Have you seen the commercials? ... They're really professional." There does not appear to be any organized opposition to Ballot Measure 2, another worry for initiative foes. "I'm very concerned," said Shea, who called on federal and state prosecutors and Alaska politicians to take a strong stand on the issue. Shea said in his years in law enforcement he spoke with several junkies who told him "it all starts with marijuana or alcohol." U.S. Attorney for Alaska Tim Burgess and state Attorney General Greg Renkes both said in interviews Tuesday that laws forbid them from using their positions to tell people how to vote. Both did say, however, that they believe marijuana is dangerous. Gov. Frank Murkowski also by law cannot campaign against Ballot Measure 2. His personal feeling, according to a spokeswoman, is that legalizing marijuana could encourage use and abuse of the drug, which has damaging consequences to children and families. "He is absolutely against it," said Murkowski's press secretary, Becky Hultberg. Alaska has gone back and forth on its marijuana laws over the last three decades. In 1975, the landmark case Ravin vs. State made it legal for adult Alaskans to possess a small amount of marijuana in their homes for personal use. But in 1990 voters criminalized all amounts of pot. That initiative appeared to kill Ravin. But last year, the Alaska Court of Appeals weighed in, saying that wasn't so. The Ravin ruling was based on privacy rights guaranteed in the Alaska Constitution, the appellate court said, which can't be taken away by voters or legislators. The Alaska Supreme Court earlier this month let that ruling stand by refusing to review the case. The first big push to legalize all amounts of marijuana statewide came in 2000. Proponents wanted the drug to be legal for those 18 and older and also wanted the government to set free some jail inmates convicted of marijuana crimes and set up a commission to consider reparations for them. Sixty percent of voters turned the initiative down. Shea said it was easy debating that measure. "It was just gross overreaching" on the part of legalization backers, he said. This year's initiative drops the amnesty and reparations ideas and also increases the legal age of pot use to 21. It also allows for government regulation of marijuana similar to tobacco or alcohol and for laws limiting use in public and to protect public safety, such as forbidding people to drive under the drug's influence. The measure also allows for taxation of marijuana. "There's a little more common sense in the approach this time," said Republican Moderate Party founder Ray Metcalfe, who supports the measure. The 2000 campaign, which had several groups behind it, also lacked a unified front, said Yes on 2 treasurer Ken Jacobus, who last year stepped down as attorney for the Republican Party of Alaska in an amicable split after he said his involvement in preparing the marijuana initiative and other issues made him "too much of a lightning rod." Jacobus said the campaign for the 2000 initiative "was worse than unorganized. They were fighting with each other." The current campaign has some new faces, the most visible of whom is the paid Yes on 2 spokesman, Bill Parker, a former legislator and deputy commissioner of corrections in Alaska from 1995 until his retirement in 2002. Parker said in a recent interview that Alaskans should vote for Ballot Measure 2 because it would protect individual privacy rights, stop the government from wasting taxpayer dollars to fight marijuana and regulate the drug in a way that will make it harder for kids to get but easier for adults to obtain legally. Drug dealers don't discriminate between children and adults by asking for an ID, Parker said. At the Yes on 2 campaign kickoff last Thursday evening, in a loft-type office on Northern Lights Boulevard, Parker seemed confident the measure would pass. "We are going to change the laws in this state on marijuana," he declared to a crowd of about 200 supporters who had gathered for the party, which featured food, drinks and a drum circle. Jacobus said one problem with state law as it stands now is that there is no way for residents -- including medical marijuana patients -- to legally obtain marijuana. Ballot Measure 2 would take care of that by regulating the drug, he said. "Kids should not be able to get it anywhere." Renkes said the notion that making Alaska's drug laws more permissive would somehow help better control marijuana use just doesn't ring true. "There's no data to prove that," he said. Jennifer de Vallance, a spokeswoman for the Office of National Drug Control Policy, agreed. She said alcohol is regulated and kids still get their hands on it. "It doesn't make sense that making this legal would hamper access," she said. "If anything, it sends a mixed message to kids that it's OK." Jacobus said for him Ballot Measure 2 is all about individual rights. "I don't smoke marijuana," he said. "I don't think it's good for you. But I don't drink either." If people want to use those substances, that should be their business, not the government's, he said. Dr. Tim Hinterberger, an assistant professor for the biomedical program at the University of Alaska Anchorage and a sponsor of Ballot Measure 2, said marijuana is widely recognized as being far less toxic than substances such as cocaine or alcohol. He said he has never heard of a case where someone died from a pot overdose. In terms of addictiveness, pot is more on par with caffeine, he said. Renkes challenged that assertion too, saying pot is addictive and mind-altering and can lead to worse drugs. He called substance abuse "the most serious social issue facing the state," noting that many crimes, injuries, deaths, as well as about 87 percent of incarcerations in Alaska are related to alcohol and drug abuse. Alaska spends more money per capita on drug prevention and treatment than any other state in country, Renkes said. "This is a problem that we all share," he said. "I'm offended by Outside money and Outside groups coming here and thinking that they can easily impact our laws." Yes on 2 is funded by individual donations and contributions from two main groups: Alaskans For Marijuana Regulation and Control, which gets most of its funding from the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project, and Alaska Rights and Revenues, which gets its funding from 800 Alaska donors and an Outside group called The Foundation for Constitutional Protection, according to each group's treasurer. David Finkelstein, treasurer of Alaskans for Marijuana Regulation and Control, said he expected Yes on 2 to spend "hundreds of thousands" of dollars on its campaign. Which is yet another worry for initiative opponents. "That's a frustrating part of the drug legalization movement," de Vallance said. "There is no well-funded political movement to keep our society safe." No clear picture on how the state would go about regulating marijuana has emerged. Both sides do agree on one point, however: Even if the initiative passes, marijuana would still be illegal in Alaska under federal law. Daily News reporter Tataboline Brant can be reached at tbrant@adn.com or 257-4321.[/SIZE] <STYLE type=text/css></STYLE> <STYLE type=text/css></STYLE>