Pubdate: Tue, 24 Feb 2015
Source: Albuquerque Journal (NM)
Copyright: 2015 The Associated Press
Contact:  http://www.abqjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/10
Author: Molly Dischner

ALASKA BECOMES 3RD STATE TO LEGALIZE RECREATIONAL POT

Native leaders worry that initiative will bring new temptations

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Smoking, growing and possessing marijuana 
becomes legal in America's wildest state Tuesday, thanks to a voter 
initiative aimed at clearing away 40 years of conflicting laws and 
court rulings.

Making Alaska the third state to legalize recreational marijuana was 
the goal of a coalition including libertarians, rugged individualists 
and small-government Republicans who prize the privacy rights 
enshrined in the state's constitution.

But when they voted 52-48 percent last November to legalize marijuana 
use by adults in private places, they left many of the details to 
lawmakers and regulators to sort out.

Meanwhile, Alaska Native leaders worry that legalization will bring 
new temptations to communities already confronting high rates of drug 
and alcohol abuse, domestic violence and suicide.

"When they start depending on smoking marijuana, I don't know how far 
they'd go to get the funds they need to support it, to support 
themselves," said Edward Nick, council member in Manokotak, a remote 
village of 400 that is predominantly Yup'ik Eskimo.

Both alcohol and drug use are prohibited in Nick's village 350 miles 
southwest of Anchorage, even inside the privacy of villagers' homes.

But Nick fears that the initiative, in combination with a 1975 state 
Supreme Court decision that legalized marijuana use inside homes - 
could open doors to drug abuse.

Initiative backers promised Native leaders that communities could 
still have local control under certain conditions. Alaska law gives 
every community the option to regulate alcohol locally. From northern 
Barrow to Klawock, 1,291 miles away in southeast Alaska, 108 
communities impose local limits on alcohol and 33 of them ban it altogether.

But the initiative did not provide clear opt-out language for tribal 
councils and other smaller communities, forcing each one to figure 
out how to proceed Tuesday.

November's initiative also bans smoking in public, but didn't define 
what that means, and lawmakers left the question to the alcohol 
regulatory board, which planned to meet early Tuesday to discuss an 
emergency response.

In Anchorage, Alaska's largest city, officials tried and failed in 
December to ban a new commercial marijuana industry. But Police Chief 
Mark Mew said his officers will be strictly enforcing the public 
smoking ban. He even warned people against smoking on their porches 
if they live next to a park.

Other officials are still discussing a proposed cultivation ban for 
the wild Kenai Peninsula. But far to the north, in North Pole, 
smoking outdoors on private property will be OK as long as it doesn't 
create a nuisance, officials there said.

While the 1975 court decision protected personal marijuana possession 
and a 1998 initiative legalized medicinal marijuana, state lawmakers 
twice criminalized any possession over the years, creating an odd legal limbo.

As of Tuesday, adult Alaskans can not only keep and use pot, but also 
can transport, grow it and give it away. A second phase, creating a 
regulated and taxed marijuana market, won't start until 2016 at the earliest.

And while possession is no longer a crime under state law, enjoying 
pot in public can bring a $100 fine.

That's fine with Dean Smith, a pot-smoker in Juneau who has friends 
in jail for marijuana offenses. "It's going to stop a lot of people 
getting arrested for nonviolent crimes," he said.

The initiative's backers warned pot enthusiasts to keep their cool.

"Don't do anything to give your neighbors reason to feel uneasy about 
this new law. We're in the midst of an enormous social and legal 
shift," organizers wrote in the Alaska Dispatch News, the state's 
largest newspaper.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom