Pubdate: Sat, 05 Feb 2005
Source: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (AK)
Copyright: 2005 Fairbanks Publishing Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.news-miner.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/764
Author: Matt Volz
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?420 (Cannabis - Popular)

POT MEASURE WOULD TEST COURT RULINGS

JUNEAU--Stymied by the courts, Alaska's governor is looking for other ways 
to toughen Alaska's anti-marijuana laws.

Pot laws are looser in Alaska than just about anywhere else in the country. 
Possessing small amounts of the drug for personal use is a privacy right 
protected under the state's constitution, the Alaska Supreme Court has 
upheld. Alaska is one of 11 states that allows the use of medical marijuana.

Republican Gov. Frank Murkowski wants state lawmakers to re-criminalize the 
drug, asking them to consider evidence of the marijuana's dangers that he 
contends should trump the right-to-privacy rulings.

The "Alaska Supreme Court has shown an unwillingness to reconsider the 
latest scientific evidence on the harmful effects of marijuana," Murkowski 
wrote to Senate President Ben Stevens in introducing his proposed 
legislation. "A rational evaluation of marijuana's harmful effects must 
occur, and the Legislature should do that--not the courts."

The state's marijuana laws have been shaped by 30 years of court decisions 
and voter referendums. In 1975, the state Supreme Court made it legal for 
adult Alaskans to possess a small amount of marijuana in their homes for 
personal use in the case of Ravin v. State.

In 1990 a successful voter initiative 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 last September to reconsider 
the Noy case, setting the legal possession limit at 4 ounces of marijuana.

Bill Satterberg, the Fairbanks attorney who filed the Appeals Court 
petition in the Noy case, says the debate has swung from one side to the 
other, but the appellate court's decision in Noy strikes a balance.

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

"I think the pendulum has swung to too permissive--the (legalization 
initiative) was too permissive, in my opinion," Satterberg said. "Then it 
swings the other way, and it is too restrictive."

Murkowski's bill would make possession of 4 ounces of marijuana or more a 
felony, and possession of up to 4 ounces a misdemeanor.

Current law makes it a misdemeanor to possess up to a half-pound of marijuana.

But most importantly, one of the bill's authors contends, going through the 
Legislature will allow a weighty body of evidence on the dangers of 
marijuana to be entered into the record.

The state can take the record of evidence back to the courts, where such 
information was missing when earlier rulings were made, said Dean Guaneli, 
chief assistant attorney general.

The hearings spurred by the bill will allow the state to enter evidence 
that marijuana poses a threat to public health "that justifies prohibiting 
its use and possession in this state, even by adults in private," the 
bill's language says.

That way, the courts will be able to look at that evidence the next time 
the privacy issue is considered in a marijuana case.

"The first thing the courts do is look to the legislative record," Guaneli 
said. "If the legislative reasons are better, the courts' constitutional 
analysis will change."

Satterberg said he doubts the state's efforts to re-criminalize marijuana 
are a good use of resources, saying there are better things to do than 
debate marijuana's effects. The bill, if it passes, would raise police and 
court costs, and make instant felons out many Alaska residents, he said.

But he can see the Murkowski bill passing through the 
Legislature--lawmakers may be reluctant to be seen as coming out in favor 
of drugs, he said.

"The problem is, it's a mother, God, apple pie thing," he said.

Tim Hinterberger, a University of Alaska Anchorage professor and one of the 
campaign organizers of the failed initiative to legalize marijuana, said 
lawmakers should consider that 134,647 voters supported the measure in 
November.

"I'm hopeful that our legislators are a bit more in tune with the will of 
the people than that," he said. "I don't think the momentum is on the side 
of returning to prohibition."

Guaneli said he believes Murkowski's bill will pass and be upheld in the 
courts, ending the state's 30-year debate over privacy and pot.

"I think once the courts say the Legislature has good grounds for doing 
this, the issue will be put to rest," he said.
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