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Buzzby

Legislators Again Try To Outlaw Pot
BILLS: Proposal would make possession of more than 4 ounces of marijuana a felony.
Anne Sutton | Anchorage Daily News | 01/11/2006

JUNEAU -- Lawmakers for the second year are trying to toughen Alaska's marijuana laws, but critics say state government should leave the little guy alone and go after commercial growers.

Alaska laws regarding marijuana use are among the loosest in the country. A 1975 Alaska Supreme Court decision made it legal for Alaskans to possess up to 4 ounces of marijuana for personal use in their homes.

Backed by Republican Gov. Frank Murkowski, the bill to re-criminalize personal use of the drug stalled last year but was heard again Tuesday.

The bill proposes to stiffen penalties for marijuana users. It would make possession of 4 ounces of pot or more a felony. Possession of less than 4 ounces would be a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail.

Murkowski has asked state lawmakers to consider evidence of marijuana's dangers that should trump the courts' right to privacy rulings.

Chief assistant attorney general Dean Guaneli testified that marijuana is more potent, and therefore more dangerous, now than it was three decades ago when the state Supreme Court ruled.

"This bill reflects what is currently known about marijuana," he said. "A lot has changed in the last 30 years."

Guaneli said proposed fixes to the bill aim to blunt criticism that it would cost the state millions of dollars in jail time and unfairly target recreational marijuana users. One amendment would impose fines for possession of less than one ounce in the first two offenses. Jail time could be considered only on a third offense.

The changes did not satisfy critics who said the state's interest in curbing small marijuana users is not compelling enough to take away an individual's privacy rights.

Michael Macleod-Ball, executive director of the Alaska Civil Liberties Union, said the bill fails to get at the root of the problem.

"In fact there is no increase (in the bill) in penalties for those with more than a pound available," he said, "Those are the commercial growers, and those are the ones you should be looking at."

Macleod-Ball urged the committee to hear testimony from expert witnesses who challenged the state's claims about the dangers of marijuana in hearings last year. He complained that the public was not given enough time to prepare for the Tuesday hearing.

But committee co-chairwoman Lyda Green, R-Wasilla, said she has closed public testimony, adding that information from last year's hearings was available to finance committee members. Green said she expects the bill to move out of committee on Thursday for later floor debate and a vote.

The state's marijuana laws have been shaped by 30 years of court decisions and voter referendums.

After the 1975 state Supreme Court decision, a successful voter initiative in 1990 criminalized all amounts of pot.

Then in 2003, the Alaska Court of Appeals reversed that in the case of North Pole resident David Noy. The court said privacy rights guaranteed in the Alaska Constitution can't be taken away by voters or legislators.

The Supreme Court declined the state's request in September 2004 to reconsider the Noy case, setting the legal possession limit at 4 ounces of marijuana.

And in November 2004, a ballot initiative to legalize marijuana and possibly tax it similar to alcohol and cigarettes failed to pass with 44 percent of the vote.

The committee also considered a bill to limit the sale of over-the-counter drugs that are used in the manufacture of the drug methamphetamine, a powerful stimulant made from household products.

It would limit the sale of Sudafed to 6 grams a month per person. It also would ban the sale of the decongestant to children under 18 years of age and require the products be secured behind the counter. Guaneli said the administration has been working on the bill with store owners who are worried about its impact on their business.

The bills are Senate Bill 74 and 70.

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urania3

Feh. Garbage. We don't do that with other licit, so-called socially acceptable drugs. How long are we going to be scared of flowers?

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Why is it that we cannot face the simple truth? Religion is at best unsubstantiated superstition. (Massimo Pigliucci)

killer12382

Poppies are flowers too and you need to be afraid of them.

Buzzby

There's no reason to be afraid of poppies. All you need to do is respect them, just as you respect marijuana, and not abuse their power. Fear is the Mindkiller...

Cassius

Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration.

If that's the only reason they've got for changing the law, I hope somebody stands up and informs them that it is impossible to overdose on marijuana, and that virtually all marijuana users titrate their dosage as a matter of routine. They smoke to get a certain level of "high" that they are comfortable with. If that means smoking 10 joints of crappy weed that have been sitting around since the 1970's, so be it. If that means smoking one bowl of BC Bud today, so be it. The point is, marijuana users don't smoke a specific amount, they smoke however much they need to get the high they want. Therefore, the potency of the weed is irrelevant except that it is actually MORE healthy nowadays to smoke weed because you have to smoke less to get the same high!

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{ Cassius, Your Humble Narrator }
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Chron

The argument that "marijuana is much stronger" today is so corny and tiresome.

Why don't they apply this logic to alcohol? Liquor is much stronger than beer. Should we ban liquor?

urania3

Alcohol is legal, so that argument is not cogent.

Chron

It is cogent. If it is legal to possess up to four ounces of pot in Alaska, and they're trying to use the lie that "marijuana is stronger now" to reverse that policy and make it a punishable offense, the alcohol/pot analogy should convince any rational person that the government's reasoning is flawed.

urania3

It's legal in one state, based on their constitution's privacy right, up to a small amount (4oz, as you said). However, alcohol is legal, in all 50 states, in an unlimited amount (more or less) without any need to address it under some sort of constitutional right.

Chron

Yeah, but this law reversal has nothing to do with the rest of the United States, only in Alaska. So the people of Alaska shouldn't accept the government telling them that their legal personal possession should be criminalized since marijuana "is stronger now". How would they feel if the government swooped in and told them, "Since we have really strong liquors now like Bacardi 151, we're considering re-criminalizing the personal use of all alcohol." I don't think the citizens would approve. It's ridiculous for them to use this logic to ban the personal use of all marijuana, as if every strain is potent. That's all I was saying with that analogy. But I understand your point about alcohol being totally legal.