Pubdate: Sun, 19 Oct 2014
Source: Alaska Dispatch News (AK)
Copyright: 2014 Alaska Dispatch Publishing
Contact:  http://www.adn.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/18
Note: Anchorage Daily News until July '14
Author: Paul Jenkins
Note: Paul Jenkins is editor of the AnchorageDailyPlanet.com, a 
division of Porcaro Communications.

LEGISLATURE SHOULD WEIGH POT LAWS, NOT VOTERS

When it comes to legalizing marijuana in Alaska, what exactly is the 
advantage of abandoning the status quo?

The initiative process in Alaska is a playground for Outside 
bamboozlers and monied special interests that want, even need, to 
dodge the give and take -- the vetting, the debate, the political 
free-for-all of the legislative process to get their way.

Despite the progressive malarkey and populist romanticism of having 
the people rise up against "The Man," initiatives are, as the late 
Washington Post columnist David Broder pointed out, "alien to the 
spirit of the Constitution."

Ballot Measure 2, put on the Nov. 4 general election ballot by 
initiative, is a nifty example.

If voters approve, Alaska would become the third state, behind 
Washington and Colorado, to legalize marijuana for adults -- although 
that is not what this vote is about. The Vote No on 2 folks have it 
right: the vote really is about commercializing marijuana.

Would the current effort, largely supported by the Marijuana Policy 
Project, have survived a grinding legislative process? Maybe, maybe 
not, but instead of debate and compromise and a viable law, Alaskans 
now are left with a take-it-or-leave-it, up-or-down vote on a flawed 
measure, which includes, for example, "concentrates" in its 
definition of marijuana. That means products such as hashish, or 
butane hash oil, which has caused more than 30 fiery explosions in Colorado.

The legislative machinery would have sparked questions about taxes; 
about law enforcement technology; about the black market; about 
crime; about traffic accidents; about kids. Somebody would have asked 
why Colorado was told dope taxes would generate $130 million the 
first year, but after nine months they provided only $21 million, and 
why general fund money is being used to implement the law and train police.

Lawmakers would have figured out that the bigger question is not 
really about little dude-and-dudette dope shops and legalizing 
marijuana and its spinoff edibles, concentrates and other products. 
Not by a long shot. It certainly is not about freedom or regulating 
marijuana the same as alcohol -- that is a pipe dream, no matter how 
desperately the measure's supporters need you to believe otherwise.

It would have been clear the central issue is the industrial 
commercialization of the weed and efforts to make a buck with 
giveaways, full-blown advertising -- even on buses and billboards and 
sidewalk sandwich boards -- and every imaginable gimmick. One need 
only look at Colorado to understand Dope Inc. is a huge industry 
looking for room to grow.

Alaska's ballot question is almost identical to Colorado's. The 
question Nov. 4 is not "Should we legalize marijuana?" The question 
is: "Do Alaskans want to mirror Colorado?" Do we want boutique 
marijuana stores springing up at every turn? How about marijuana 
candy, cookies, soda and vape pens in convenience stores? Do Alaskans 
want more transients, more homeless, more crime, more indigents 
arriving here for dope and welfare? What about large pot cooperatives 
popping up and producing untaxed personal-use marijuana in areas that 
forbid retail sales. (The ballot measure, by the way, could make it 
tough for Alaska's rural villages to ban such enterprises.)

The truth is, if you want dope, you can get dope now in Alaska, 
though the law is confusing. The Alaska Supreme Court in 1975, citing 
privacy grounds, ruled individuals constitutionally can possess the 
drug at home, although state law forbids it.

The Legislature in 1982 set the amount at less than 4 ounces and 
later at 1 ounce. Lawmakers in 2006 recriminalized marijuana 
possession at home, but that, too, was challenged successfully on 
privacy grounds. Marijuana remains in legal limbo. Medicinal 
marijuana also is available here.

Ballot Measure 2 would allow individuals only 1 ounce and to grow up 
to six plants. Possession of more would be a crime. Other than huge 
profits for Dope Inc., painfully predictable social and cultural 
upheaval and boatloads of unforeseen consequences, what exactly is 
the advantage to the average Alaskan of abandoning the status quo?

There arguably is ample reason to further decriminalize marijuana and 
address confusion and conflict in state law, but those issues are 
best sliced and diced by the Legislature, which can weigh other 
states' experiences, assess the facts and craft a reasonable law.

As has happened too often in Alaska with initiatives, Ballot Measure 
2 is simply an effort by its backers to dodge the messy political 
process; to frame the question for their own ends.

Great for them; not so much for us.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom