Pubdate: Tue, 28 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: Scott Woodham
Note: Scott Woodham is an opinion pages editor for Alaska Dispatch News.

PASSING PROP. 2 WILL FIX THE BROKEN MESSAGE ON MARIJUANA ALASKA NOW 
SENDS TO KIDS

Kids believe what we tell them, but they're not stupid. As a society 
we tell kids many things about living healthy lives and following 
laws. And then, God help us, they see what we do.

Every kid since the beginning of the Drug War has grown up with 
strong warnings against all drugs, including marijuana, listed under 
the federal government's most dangerous tier of controlled 
substances. But this being Alaska, where per capita use rates have 
been among the highest in the U.S. for years, it doesn't take long to 
learn growing up here, as I did, that responsible, upstanding people 
from all walks of life use cannabis recreationally, even regularly. 
It's no secret that soft attitudes toward marijuana have existed in 
Alaska for a long time. They've softened so much recently that Alaska 
could become the third state to correct the messages we already send 
kids about marijuana while relatively more harmful substances remain 
legal and common.

Legalizing marijuana, it's said, would send the "wrong message" to 
kids. But we already tell kids things that go against what they see 
around them. All of those signals undercut the one thing everyone 
wants kids to hear: For your own sake, wait until adulthood to 
experiment with marijuana, or alcohol, and then use it responsibly.

A good deal of evidence points to greater harm being likely the 
younger someone begins heavy, regular pot use, or if they have a 
personal or family history of certain mental illnesses. But that's 
true with many substances. The effects of casual use that starts 
later among otherwise healthy people aren't as well understood. Most 
research in the past 20 years has focused on effects among 
adolescents and heavy users, a little like studying chronic 
inebriates and binge drinkers to learn the effects of an occasional 
post-work cocktail. Regular, heavy drug use is bad no matter what is 
being consumed, but the message to kids winds up being that abuse and 
use are the same thing when it comes to marijuana, but not alcohol.

Kids get other mixed messages, too. Ask any parent: It's practically 
impossible not to contradict yourself in front of kids. But the 
inconsistency is baked into the very laws we're supposed to follow, 
and the laws are broken by many, many Alaskans. Kids see inconsistent 
and inequitable enforcement, and even among their peers they see 
punishments that far outstrip the crime.

When kids encounter marijuana at school or elsewhere, they need to 
trust us when we tell them to avoid it until they're much older. But 
kids have plenty of access to it now, in part because the current 
system forces people to locate production in the home. A marijuana 
grow is much harder to secure than a small amount of pot. And that 
means marijuana is everywhere.

The apparent message to kids: Marijuana, though illegal, is OK as 
long as you treat it like an indoor gardening hobby.

Meanwhile, all of the exotic marijuana products -- the edibles, and 
concentrates that have caused so much fear -- are available in Alaska 
. right this very moment. You just have to know which people to ask. 
And in many parts of the state, you have to bring a lot of money.

If post-drug-bust numbers from law enforcement are any gauge, 
marijuana can sell in some parts of Alaska for more than $1,800 per 
ounce, or $66 per gram, around six times what the same amount 
generally costs in Anchorage. Assuming we can trust police to know 
their local market, that kind of massive profit potential coupled 
with sparse legal oversight seems powerful motivation for 
unscrupulous people to abuse other individuals and a community.

As campaign materials from opponents of the initiative show, Colorado 
and Washington have provided many examples of problems Alaska should 
address in its rule-making process. The legislature should also 
consider amendments if Ballot Measure 2 passes, for instance a local 
option avenue for communities that want to prohibit its importation. 
But none of these problems are reasons to keep pursuing a failed 
policy of prohibition.

Dosages in edibles, packaging, advertising, limits of possession, 
intoxication tests for the road and workplace can all be restricted, 
while helping to root out persistent black markets. All those areas 
and other lessons learned represent a head start for Alaska to create 
its own regulatory framework, which is what passage of the measure 
will force the state to do.

The rule-making process that the initiative forces will provide 
opportunity for hashing out all these fears. And, contrary to the 
sincere fears of some commentators, the Alaska Constitution allows 
for modification: "An initiated law becomes effective 90 days after 
certification, is not subject to veto, and may not be repealed by the 
legislature within two years of its effective date. It may be amended 
at any time."

Provided that they're reasonable, those amendments will go through as 
long as they don't substantially change the intent or effect of the 
initiative, which is explicit: "To legalize, tax and regulate 
marijuana in Alaska." Pot users and aspiring entrepreneurs will agree 
to many reasonable restrictions because they'll be far better than 
risking arrest, probation, fine, property confiscation or incarceration.

The worst-case scenario is that we continue the current haphazard, 
counterproductive system, and this initiative is the best chance 
Alaska has seen yet to fix it. Voting yes will tell kids that we 
adults are committed to correcting a central hypocrisy of our state 
and national drug policy, and to making our words and deeds match -- 
something we'll expect of them when they become adults. They must 
feel our trust in each other before they'll feel it in themselves.

It is wrong to prosecute adults for possessing or using an 
intoxicating substance whose responsible use poses little risk to 
individuals relative to other currently legal substances, and whose 
well-regulated manufacture and sale would pose little risk to the 
communities that choose to allow it. But it is a disgrace to continue 
prosecuting laws against marijuana possession selectively and 
inconsistently as law enforcement authorities say they are now doing.

Lost in the discussion of law enforcement figures is that even a 
single adult who loses personal property or freedom, even 
temporarily, because of personal marijuana use or possession is one too many.

Our mixed messages and violations of individual rights in the pursuit 
of prohibition have created the modern legalization movement. If a 
great proportion of minority voters and young adults -- the biggest 
targets in the war on marijuana users -- don't turn out to vote on 
Nov. 4, the measure will likely fail. But nothing will change. 
Marijuana will still be freely available to every single person in 
Alaska, responsible adult or not. It will remain illegal, and law 
enforcement officers will still be making daily decisions about who 
will or won't be hassled. Middle-aged white guys on the Anchorage 
Hillside, for instance, will still be able to rest easy. Young people 
in Mountain View still won't.

If on Election Day some Alaskans find that a small amount of 
marijuana has -- according to state legal precedent -- magically 
appeared in the privacy of their own homes, they should feel free to 
indulge responsibly. But they had better not forget to vote.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom