Sender: To: X-Original-Message-ID: <1bac01bf4c68$db449d40$9acf69cf@pacbell.net> From: "Peter McWilliams" Subject: Alaska, ho! Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 02:39:42 -0800 X-Mozilla-Status: 8001 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 Pubdate: Sat, 11 Dec 1999 Source: Anchorage Daily News (AK) Copyright: 1999 The Anchorage Daily News Contact: letters@adn.com Website: http://www.adn.com/ MARIJUANA BACKERS EXPECT LEGALIZATION INITIATIVE TO MAKE BALLOT JUNEAU (AP)- Backers of an initiative to legalize marijuana say they have enough signatures to put the measure on the November ballot. "We're working on our insurance signatures right now," said Al Anders, ballot coordinator for the 99HEMP Committee. Anders said 26,000 signatures have been gathered, more than the minimum 22,716 required to put the question on the ballot. Election officials encourage backers of initiatives to gather 1,500 to 2,000 extra signatures because some are usually disqualified because they're not from registered voters. Sponsors of initiatives have until Jan. 10 to turn in their petitions if they hope to place a measure on the November ballot. The marijuana measure would prevent the state from prosecuting people for growing, distributing, possessing or consuming marijuana or other hemp products. It calls for marijuana to be regulated similarly to alcoholic beverages and would allow the Legislature to prohibit people from driving or operating heavy equipment under the influence and from using marijuana in public places. The measure also calls for clearing the criminal records of people prosecuted for marijuana crimes in the past - and for the state to consider making restitution to people convicted of past marijuana crimes. In the 1970s, Alaska's Supreme Court ruled that the state constitution's privacy provisions protected people from prosecution for having small amounts of marijuana in their homes. A 1990 citizens' initiative recriminalized marijuana possession. Last year voters approved a ballot measure that allowed people to grow and use marijuana for limited medical purposes. Anders said the current measure would end the hypocrisy of treating marijuana differently from alcohol. "I think it's absolutely a shame that we're throwing men and women in prison and stealing their children away from them over a plant ... the use of which is at worst foolish, but is far less harmful than almost any other intoxicant that God has put on this earth," Anders said. Michael Rowcroft, a Juneau chemical dependency counselor, said legalizing pot is a bad idea. Marijuana is addictive and impairs thinking, memory and reaction time, Rowcroft said. Before 1990, the rate of adolescent marijuana use in Alaska was double the national average, Rowcroft said.