Pubdate: Sat, 25 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: Laurie Constantino
Note: Laurie Constantino worked her way to the top of Alaska's 
Criminal Division between 1976 and 1996. Her final job before 
retirement was supervising all district attorney offices and setting 
criminal justice policy for Alaska.

FORMER ALASKA CHIEF PROSECUTOR: MARIJUANA SHOULD BE REGULATED LIKE ALCOHOL

I'm the former chief prosecutor for the state of Alaska, and I'm 
voting yes on Ballot Measure 2.

Most of my career was spent in law enforcement. I was an assistant 
district attorney, a district attorney, an assistant attorney general 
in Alaska's Criminal Division, and Alaska's chief prosecutor/deputy 
attorney general under two governors. As chief prosecutor, I 
supervised all of Alaska's district attorney offices. I also worked 
as special counsel to the Legislative Committee on Local Option Laws, 
holding hearings to document Alaska's problems with alcohol abuse and 
writing Alaska's first local option law. Later, I worked as legal 
advisor to the Anchorage Youth Court.

My background and experience give me in-depth knowledge of how 
Alaska's criminal justice system works. I've been on the front lines: 
in the courtrooms, screening cases, working with law enforcement 
officers, setting criminal justice policy, and writing criminal laws. 
I have firsthand knowledge of when criminal punishment is effective 
and when it is not.

I learned through experience that criminal laws aren't the answer to 
every social problem and should only apply to conduct that actually 
requires jail time. Sometimes a public health response is more 
effective (cigarettes). Sometimes monetary fines and penalties are 
sufficient (traffic and Fish and Game offenses). In other cases, jail 
is the only solution, either as a deterrent (first time DWI) or to 
protect the community (violent crime).

When considering how to deal with marijuana, the issue isn't whether 
marijuana is good or bad, or better or worse than alcohol. Most 
Alaskans, on both sides of the current debate, agree marijuana needs 
to be controlled and regulated. The important issue is how to do this 
most effectively.

According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 25 percent 
of Alaskans aged 18-25, and 11 percent of Alaskans over 25, use 
marijuana every month. To believe marijuana should remain a crime, 
one must also believe that all marijuana-using adults are criminals 
who need the possibility of jail time hanging over their heads.

The truth is, whether one likes it or not, it's financially and 
practically impossible to enforce existing marijuana laws against 
even a small percentage of marijuana users, even if we wanted to. 
Today we have about 6,000 people in prison. Arresting and prosecuting 
all Alaskans who use marijuana would quadruple prison costs and 
require many new prisons.

The problems caused by marijuana prohibition in Alaska are 
indistinguishable from the problems created by America's experiment 
with alcohol prohibition in the early 20th century. Many blatantly 
ignore the law, which is selectively enforced. We have a thriving 
black market in marijuana and an untaxed underground economy.

Instead of keeping unenforced and unenforceable criminal laws on the 
books, we need a regulatory structure similar to alcohol, with 
sensible regulations that spell out to whom marijuana may be sold, 
where it may be used, what forms of marijuana are allowed in stores, 
and how marijuana for sale must be labeled and packaged. We also need 
an effective marijuana tax to pay for and enforce the new regulatory 
structure. Ballot Measure 2 gives us both.

Ballot Measure 2 also includes a local option law, allowing local 
communities to completely ban the sale (and manufacture) of marijuana 
within their boundaries.

Like all new laws, this one may need to be amended and tweaked in the 
future as we learn from Alaska's experience. However, given the 
breadth of regulatory authority over marijuana provided in Ballot 
Measure 2, most of the problems opponents cite can easily be cured in 
the regulations.

The bottom line: existing marijuana prohibition laws aren't working 
and haven't worked for years. By having laws more honored in the 
breach than the observance, as is the case with marijuana, we help 
breed disrespect for all our laws.

It's time to try a better approach to regulating marijuana and we get 
that from Ballot Measure 2. It will have my vote on Nov. 4.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom