Pubdate: Wed, 04 Mar 2015
Source: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (AK)
Copyright: 2015 Fairbanks Publishing Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://newsminer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/764
Author: Matt Buxton

SENATORS SAY ALASKA PUTS ITSELF AT RISK WITH MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION

JUNEAU - The debate in the state capital building about Alaska's new 
marijuana law has caused some conservatives to side with an entity 
they generally abhor - the federal government.

In the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday lawmakers who have spent 
much of the session pounding their chests over federal overreach 
pointed to federal laws for proof that marijuana is still illegal, 
regardless of what voters did last year.

"Marijuana is illegal in this state because it's against federal 
law," said Sen. Pete Kelly, R-Fairbanks. "I think the people of 
Alaska were lied to on that point. I think it needs to be clarified 
on the record that it's against federal law and nothing we do here is 
going to change federal law."

The committee, which Kelly co-chairs, was hearing Senate Bill 30, a 
mammoth bill that deals with the gray areas between Ballot Measure 2 
and existing criminal law. Ballot Measure 2 went into effect last 
week and legalizes the possession of up to 1 ounce of marijuana 
outside the home by people 21 and older as well growing up to six plants.

The U.S. Department of Justice issued a memo to states in 2013 that 
essentially said it would refocus its prosecutions in states that 
have legalized marijuana to prevent minor consumption and drug 
cartels, trusting states to enact "strong and effective regulatory 
and enforcement systems."

Kelly said listening to that advice would leave states "beholden" to 
the federal government, likening the memo to President Barack Obama's 
"goofy executive orders."

"We're giving the federal government more leeway to tamper with our 
lives up here," Kelly said. "Possession and use of marijuana is 
against the law no matter what the outcome of this is."

Sen. Click Bishop, R-Fairbanks, turned heads earlier this session 
with a floor speech featuring an adaptation of Dr. Seuss' "Green Eggs 
and Ham" opposing federal overreach on resource development. On 
Tuesday, he said Alaska could be putting itself at risk with a 
changing administration.

"In this spirit of this I think we ought to ask for an opinion and 
get a 'get out of jail free' card," he said. "What's to say that two 
years from now the U.S. Attorney General says 'we're going to enforce 
this' and now the state is out of the money that it took to implement 
this program?"

Sen. Mike Dunleavy, R-Wasilla, also brought up the issue, pondering 
what grounds the state had to ignore federal law. He took the 
argument to its extreme, asking if the underlying justification to 
ignore federal law might give the state leeway on other, resource 
development-centric issues.

"If we have a law, do we follow the law? If we choose not to, who 
gets to decide we don't follow the law," he said. "I think it opens 
up all kinds of possibilities for Alaska to ignore the EPA, ignore 
the Endangered Species Act."

The attitudes were a distinct shift from what has been considered to 
be a generally more progressive approach by the Senate Judiciary 
Committee, which worked on Senate Bill 30 for more than a month. That 
committee opted to remove marijuana from the state's list of 
controlled substances, making it a regulated substance akin to alcohol.

It also proposes to take minor misconduct involving marijuana crimes 
off easily searchable online databases to protect minors later in 
life. That's something that isn't done for alcohol, although it's 
being considered.

Sen. Peter Micciche, R-Soldotna, is the only member of the Senate 
Finance Committee who also sat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. 
While he has expressed concerns over the commercialization of 
marijuana, he often has reminded his colleagues that both Ballot 
Measure 2 and the 1975 Alaska Supreme Court case Ravin v. State, 
which protected possession of marijuana in a home through Alaska's 
constitutional right to privacy, are black and white.

Tuesday, he agreed there's some grayness to the issue of federal laws 
but said it's not a reason to play it overly safe.

"I think unfortunately there is a gray area," he said. "The highest 
court made it legal to have 4 ounces in your personal residence for 
personal use. Clearly there are applications where federal law defers 
to states' rights and there are applications where they don't."

The committee will continue its work on the bill on Thursday.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom