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Suetaz

Alaska Ponders Pot Initiative

August 20, 2004 | FOXnews.com

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Last Frontier state just may become the first in the nation to legalize marijuana completely.

Backers of a controversial ballot initiative want pot to be treated just like alcohol. If voters pass the measure, it would be legal to grow, smoke and sell any amount of marijuana so long as one is 21 years of age. The state would regulate the cannabis industry just as it licenses booze and cigarettes.

[Suetaznote: This sounds like a damn good idea to me! ]

"Alaskans are independent and I think Alaskans believe people should have the maximum freedom of choice," said Ken Jacobus, a pro-marijuana attorney. "Adults can choose cigarettes, they can choose alcohol."

Alaskans can currently possess small amounts of pot for use in their homes, and medical marijuana is allowed.

[Suetaznote: Too bad life in Alaska isn't more appealing, but it's just so COLD there!]

State Attorney General Gregg Renkes opposes the initiative. He says liberalizing the drug laws will "lead to a higher rate of addiction for marijuana and other drugs.

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ACT to promote cannabis law changes

Australians in Canberra toughen growing laws

ABCNewsOnline | August 21, 2004

The ACT Government will mount a public education campaign to promote changes to Canberra's drug laws.

Under laws passed by the Legislative Assembly last week, maximum sentences will rise to 25 years for growing or supplying commercial amounts of drugs.

The main change is that the number of cannabis plants which attract an infringement notice will drop from five to two.

Chief Minister Jon Stanhope says he is aware of the need to inform the community.

"I will be seeking and will receive assurances that we do engage as broad as possible an information and education campaign in relation to the new regime in relation to the personal use cannabis," he said.

"It will increase the burden on the state, and I think it's really a disservice to our young people."

[Suetaznote: It's a disservice to young people to put them in jail for growing a plant too! 25 years for growing more than two plants?! Why don't Doctors get 25 years for prescribing medications with opiates in them that the patients get addicted to and overdose on? Oh ya, because all they do is prescribe it and you're on your own after that. If people can be expected to be responsible with addictive killer opiates, why can't they be expected to be responsible with a harmless plant for medicine?]

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413

The Ying and the Yang

If Juneau is anything like Portland or Seattle, I'd give it a try...

The real disservice is the fact the judge probably has a lifetime appointment to his position, and unless he's overturned the law will stay that way.

The irony here is the Crown used the same sort of tatics on the colonists in the late 18th century, jailing dissidents for their views and actions with Draconian laws and punishments.

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"Penalties against drug use should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against the possession of marijuana in private for personal use."

smoking_joe_lee

The news out of Alaska sounds great! Does anyone know if pot grow well outdoors in the great northwest? When I was a kid I heard vegtables like cabbage grow HUGE up there because of the "midnight sun." Comments?

This kind of news might even put the old song, "North to Alaska" back on the charts. Just a different kind of gold this time.

Haven't heard anything more from rick about the "mindless zombies" that Americans are supposed to have become. Maybe there is a reason for hope after all. On the other hand, you have to wonder about the land down under!

I'm smoking joe and I approve the news fron Alaska! Just hope it passes...

Greenbud

Heh, I have some friends up in Delta Jet, Alaska that have been trying to get me to move up there. After reading this article, I may have to consider it...

Hey, Joe...those same Alaskan friends sent me some pictures of the produce out of their garden. The broccoli heads were the size of beach balls!!!!

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"I believe in the near future, the government will use anti-drug hysteria to set up a police state."
-author William S. Burroughs, 1947

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melanotaenia

isn't Alaska where Manatuska Tundra started, that strain that grows gold ball type buds (at least it did when I grew it a while back)? Man, Alaska is starting to sound pretty good right now, and if my memory serves me, didn't they try this once before and it got shot down? Maybe the second time will be the charm; if it is, I will have to convince my company that we need to start doing research in Alaska, what kind of research, who knows, as long as it brings them to build an office up there for me to go too.........it sounds too good to be true

(Mel startes to salivate remembering the smoke from the Manatuska Tundra )

Well I hope Alaska is able to start this trend; my only question is why Alaksa? Why has Alaska proven to be a little bit more "progressive" so to speak compared to the rest of the lower 48 who still seem to have their heads stuck up theis a**ses?

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413

in the last 25 or so years when it WAS legal to grow an possess Cannabis in Alaska. Just couldn't realy grow it outside>The law said it had to be in a private residence in order to be legal.
Alaska has some of the most resident-friendly laws with regards to a persons privacy. Which basically read LEO's stay on OUTSIDE of the door. My Castle, My Kingdom. Heres the article that was on MPP
http://www.mpp.org/AK/news_5487.html

And I also read earlier this week that the desicision to allow the Cannabis initialive in Nevada, was ordered to recount the signitures collected by the initiative gruops. Before the recount the state commission had already declared almost 35,000 sigintures as being valid, the measure needed only 51,037(?) to get placed on this November's ballot.

Here's that link

http://www.mapinc.org/norml/v04/n1172/a01.htm?134

Keep thinking positive people, the courts are really starting to see the light and telling uptight beurecrats where to stick it.

so register and VOTE , IT'S YOUR GOVERNMENT, make it work FOR YOU not some rich@$$ fatcat

Suetaz

Alaska Supreme Court OK's marijuana use

Juneau, AK, Sep. 15 (UPI) -- The state Supreme Court has affirmed the rights of Alaskan adults to possess four ounces of marijuana for personal use in the home.

The ruling lets stand a Court of Appeals' August 2003 decision that determined a ballot initiative passed by voters in 1990 outlawing any amount of the drug to be unconstitutional. Unlike the U.S. constitution, the Alaska Constitution explicitly prohibits government interference in residents' privacy, and the state's high court ruled in 1975's Ravin v. State that home use of small amounts of marijuana does not pose any social harm that warrants a violation of that privacy.

Attorney General Gregg Renkes told the Anchorage Daily News he agreed the personal-use allowance is now the law, saying "I respect and will abide by" the decision.

But Alaska ACLU attorney Jason Brandeis warned residents marijuana possession is still a federal offense.

"The feds can break into your house if you have an ounce of marijuana, and you can be charged federally," he said.

Alaska is the 12th state to decriminalize the personal use of the drug.

VicFerrari

Well, I've lived in Seattle and been to Juneau a few times; I can't imagine that weed would grow there very well. Juneau is relatively cool (about 10-20 degF below Seattle's temp on any given day).
I always thought that good stuff grows around 70-80 degrees with minimal precip. (Juneau gets a LOT of rain).

BUT HEY, that's why they have grow lamps!

Unregistered010

i live in juneau and it is exactly like seattle or portland just a bit more rain