cannabisnews.com: No on Measure 2










  No on Measure 2

Posted by CN Staff on October 27, 2004 at 08:40:54 PT
Editorial 
Source: News-Miner  

Ballot Measure 2 has no place in Alaska, despite what the advertising effort of its proponents will have you think. This is not about privacy, this is not about Alaska being "The last best place," this is not about keeping marijuana out of the hands of children.This is all about allowing adults to possess, with the blessing of society and its law, as much marijuana as they want. It's about allowing them to trade it, to buy it, to sell it, to grow it to their happy heart's content.
They aren't satisfied with recent Alaska court rulings that, using the Alaska Constitution's privacy provision as their foundation, indicate people can legally have up to four ounces--the equivalent of a joint a day per year--of marijuana in their home? Perhaps someday the state's lawmakers and residents will have the wisdom to close that loophole and thereby put an end to this misguided coupling of Alaska's vaunted right to privacy and the use of marijuana. Alaska, and its residents, simply cannot afford the passage of Measure 2.Will businesses want to relocate here knowing there's a greater chance their employees might go home from a hard day's work and light up a fatty?How will commanders at Alaska's many military installations, especially those in the cities, control the urge to smoke among their primarily young, male population? Will the military subsequently be as generous as it has been to Alaska?Will the federal government, whose laws still prohibit marijuana possession, penalize Alaska through the loss of funds, much like federal highway funds were at risk until the state lowered its drunken-driving threshold to 0.08 percent from 0.10? And whose marijuana law will prevail? The answer is not known.And how will parents explain to their children that marijuana use harms the body and mind in so many ways, as documented by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Office of National Drug Control Policy and other agencies? The consequences are numerous, obvious and call for rejection of Measure 2.What's important to acknowledge in the discussion about Measure 2 is that marijuana is readily available and widely used in Alaska and is likely to remain that way, perhaps for the foreseeable future. Marijuana grown in Alaska is quite renowned, among its users and those in the law enforcement and drug rehabilitation fields, for its potency. Proponents of Measure 2, however, suggest that the facts point to the need for the measure's approval, that legalizing the essentially unlimited possession of marijuana will reduce the rate of related crimes and decrease its use among children, who even in Fairbanks middle schools have a relatively easy time of finding a little loose weed or a couple of joints maybe rolled by a classmate. They argue marijuana regulation, not criminalization, is the way to go--though voters should note the measure does not mandate regulation. It could simply open a pot free-for-all.But such points in favor of Measure 2 are weak. There is little offered in the way of evidence that any of the proponents' suggested benefits will come true. So why gamble?Yes, marijuana is easily found--too much so. Consider this, though: Do intelligent societies take the easy way out by legalizing away a problem behavior? No. Yet that is what is proposed for Alaska. Perhaps if we have another problem that is proving hard to beat, society should simply make the problem legal. Presto! Problem solved.Measure 2 warrants a "no" vote. It truly is a no-brainer decision, for if the unlimited use of marijuana is approved, the consequence is clear: Alaska will have a lot more no-brainers.Source: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (AK)Published: Wednesday, October 27, 2004 Copyright: 2004 Fairbanks Publishing Company, Inc.Contact: letters newsminer.comWebsite: http://www.news-miner.com/ Related Articles & Web Site:Yes on 2 Alaskahttp://www.yeson2alaska.com/Alaska’s Marijuana Measure Bucks Fedshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19714.shtmlAdvocates Push Groundbreaking Measure in Alaska http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19709.shtmlYes: Measure 2: MJ Initiative Will Restore Orderhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19698.shtmlProposition 2 Would Help Fight Alaska's Warhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19620.shtml 

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Comment #12 posted by FoM on October 29, 2004 at 16:24:18 PT
Related Article: Assembly Opposes Pot Measure
Friday, October 29, 2004 
 By Diana Campbell, Staff WriterThe Borough Assembly passed a resolution urging people to vote against legalizing marijuana Thursday night.
The resolution was passed 9 to 2, with Tim Beck and Guy Sattley voting no."We've been bushwhacked, or maybe I should say weed-whacked by Outside money," said Garry Hutchison, one of the assembly members who sponsored the bill.The assembly joins the Fairbanks City Council, the Fairbanks North Star Borough School Board and the City of North Pole in speaking out against Ballot Proposition No. 2, which calls for the legalization of marijuana.The action was just one of many that kept assembly members working late. Among other things, the assembly voted to give the Fairbanks Drama Association and Children's Theatre $10,000, deny one church rezone and OK another, and approved a tax zone that would allow the borough to issue bonds passed on future development. Dan Hoffman, deputy chief of the Fairbanks Police Department, urged the assembly to pass the strongly worded resolution. He testified that he and the Fairbanks officers have seen many tragic cases in which marijuana was a contributing factor. He also pointed to young women who have become victims of crime from people who took advantage of their drug use.Others testified that the idea that marijuana is a gateway drug to harder drugs was not true, nor is the notion that legalized pot would be easier for children to get.Others accused the assembly of electioneering by taking a stand on a voter initiative."I just don't conceive that of being a part of your duties," said Bill Sullivan. "What's next? Are you going to advocate voting for Lisa Murkowski?"Eileen Cummings submitted an amendment that struck from the resolution the phrase that urged voters to vote no. The amendment failed. "You ought to let people make up their own mind," Beck said. The assembly unanimously turned down the rezone request of a church that wanted to change their Minnie Street property from multiple family dwellings into light commercial. Several neighbors of the church testified that a rezone would increase traffic to an already busy street. It's a family neighborhood with a school nearby, they said. The borough assembly did approve a rezone of former Baptist church property on Ballaine Road for a couple who want to build rental cabins and a pottery studio and shop. The rezone restricts the business on the property to be only a pottery business, which was fine Doug and Terry Anderson, the owners of the property. "We were married by potters on their front lawn," Doug Anderson said.A dozen people encouraged the assembly to pass the ordinance that would give FDA $8,727.20, but the ordinance was amended to give them $10,000. The assembly also passed the tax increment zones in the Van Horn Road and College Road areas. The zones would allow the borough to issue bonds to improve land to encourage economic development. The bonds would be repaid by taxes collected from businesses that may build on the improved properties.Diana Campbell can be reached at 459-7523 or dcampbell newsminer.com Copyright: 2004 Fairbanks Publishing Company, Inc.http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1413,113~7244~2499531,00.html
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Comment #11 posted by kaptinemo on October 27, 2004 at 17:29:52 PT:
"And the Boogeyman will getcha!"
Mamawillie, the Feds know that Alaska is vital to national security, as it has been ever since "Seward's Folly" days. The idea of the Feds cutting off their own nose to spite their faces in this matter is as ludicrous as it sounds.This is both reaching at straws and a continuation of the present Regime's penchant for governence by ghost stories like the Terror Alerts that happen suspiciously during some revelation or another of the Regime's incompetence. (Shaking head ruefully) They've 'cried wolf' once too often, and have lost ALL credibility. I wouldn't believe the Bush Gang to tell me rain was wet. When intelligence is continually insulted, first it becomes tender, then bruised, then it develops a callus; after a while, the lies bounce right off, and all you're left with is mild wonderment at the stupidity of those who still keep trying to snooker you. More and more are reaching that point of callosity; more and more are beginning to realize what this 90 year long Potemkin Village has cost us. A crappy economy is helping immensely. It's time to pay the piper, and the national wallet is empty. Seeing this facet alone is causing more and more to join the side of reform.We've heard it all before; the only thing that's changed is the rising volume denoting desperation. For all the high-pitched histrionics, it's music to my ears. Screech and moan and wail all you want, antis; I just keep thinking of tar pits...and trapped, doomed dinosaurs bellowing as they sank to oblivion.
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Comment #10 posted by mayan on October 27, 2004 at 17:07:31 PT
JAIL
Observer is very observant! Should Alaskans continue to go to jail for possessing cannabis?It would be great if all of these ballot initiatives were worded like that!
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Comment #9 posted by mamawillie on October 27, 2004 at 15:06:15 PT
I have to admit...
This is a good question: "Will the federal government, whose laws still prohibit marijuana possession, penalize Alaska through the loss of funds, much like federal highway funds were at risk until the state lowered its drunken-driving threshold to 0.08 percent from 0.10? And whose marijuana law will prevail? The answer is not known."Hopefully the Supreme Court will help in this area...
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Comment #8 posted by siege on October 27, 2004 at 13:09:59 PT
BLACK MARKET
no-brainers Is Let the BLACK MARKET run wild and do the Kids IN.Iombar
Sorry I came up with it (uranium) they used depleted uranium) bullets, I was talking bull sh*t in 1982-3 with a base commander USMC he ask how I could take a tank out with a small round.. and they did it. So I don't talk any more. I Was not thinking at the time. just Answered a qushion.
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Comment #7 posted by lilgrasshoppah77 on October 27, 2004 at 11:51:48 PT
Never trust anybody...
who looks to the military for guidance. Soldiers do not live in a free, democratic society. And anybody who wants us to live like soldiers doesn't have our best interests at heart.
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Comment #6 posted by lombar on October 27, 2004 at 11:37:00 PT
Who says our society is intelligent?
"Consider this, though: Do intelligent societies take the easy way out by legalizing away a problem behavior?"Ok, it is only 'problem behavior' because of the beliefs of people like the author. It is problem behavior...for children. Not everyone is incapable of making their own choices in life with respect to drugs and not everyone is a child nor should they be treated as such. Funny how the paternalistic society 'cares' if I smoke some cannabis but does not care if I have no medical insurance, no home, and nothing to eat.Intelligent societies do not pollute the seas, lands, and skies to continually increase profits. They do not war under false pretenses and spread poison around the globe (depleted uranium). They sure do not have hypocritical views about recreational drugs. They don't bully their neighbors constantly and they sure don't let religion become the state.I hope Alaskans send a clear message to the feds. The real issue is freedom. 
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Comment #5 posted by observer on October 27, 2004 at 11:09:23 PT
its all about JAIL
This is all about allowing adults to possess, with the blessing of society and its law, as much marijuana as they want. It's about allowing them to trade it, to buy it, to sell it, to grow it to their happy heart's content.So what? Is this all about spiteing and punishing adults who disagree with the anally-retentive authoritarians? Your crime? You disagree with a fundie who is Convinced and Believes that you are filled with the the devil because ... you would dare disagree with his jailing of adults who use a plant. 
``The sufferer is tremulous, and loses his self-command; he is subject to fits of agitation and depression; he loses his color and has a haggard appearance. The appetite falls off, and symptom of gastric catarrh may be manifested. The heart also suffers; it palpitates, or it intermits. As with other such agents, a renewed dose of the poison gives temporary relief, but at the cost of future misery.'' ... The substance referred to is coffee, and the statement was circulated for a short time in an attempt to garner support for the prohibition of coffee. http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme2.htm#2
Does that sound silly - making coffee illegal? ... (All to save the children, of course.)This is all about allowing adults to possess, with the blessing of society and its law, as much coffee as they want. It's about allowing them to trade it, to buy it, to sell it, to grow it to their happy heart's content.In the past, it was all about turning in drug (coffee) users to the authorities, too. 
17th century The prince of Waldeck pays ten thalers to anyone who denounces a coffee drinker. [Griffith Edwards, Psychoactive substances, *The Listener*, March 23, 1972, pp. 360-363; p.361]
Like now, they had their own little crime-stoppers program back then, also. (This slime-ball behaviour goes way back; Remember the inner circle of Dante's hell, and Matt.26:15. But I digress.) Will businesses want to relocate here knowing there's a greater chance their employees might go home from a hard day's work and light up a fatty? How will commanders at Alaska's many military installations, especially those in the cities, control the urge to smoke among their primarily young, male population?Oh yeah ... America will arrest its way into economic prosperity, arrest, arrest and jail sinners unto Righteousness, jail potheads unto Heaven, the New Jerusalem, Nirvana, the arrival of the Mahdi, the second coming of Jebus, utopia, ... or at least, arrest its way to some politician's re-election, he hopes."Survival of the Culture is Pictured as Dependent on Prohibition or Continued Prohibition of the Drug"
 http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme3.htm#3Maybe the dictator needs to send a czar to shore up Alaska? 
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Comment #4 posted by Ferre on October 27, 2004 at 09:59:50 PT
Cannabis IS legal, prohibition is not!
Cannabis has been cultivated for thousends of years, if it was not for political corruption Cannabis/Hemp would not be questioned at all. Let's stop questioning the harm of cannabis and start questioning the harm of corruption.
Cannabis - THC - Ministry Amsterdam
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Comment #3 posted by dongenero on October 27, 2004 at 09:51:33 PT
speaking of no-brainers
Let's not try to regulate it out of the hands of children while providing freedom, liberty and choice for adults.No, let's keep it illegal and saddle children and adults alike with criminal records, perhaps incarceration, asset forfeiture, financial ruin......for a victimless crime.Give up on Prohibition? It happened once before and it didn't take 70 years of banging your head against a wall to realize the logic.Now that's a no-brainer.
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on October 27, 2004 at 09:28:28 PT

ADN: Legalize & Limit Marijuana: NO
October 27, 2004Backers of the measure to legalize marijuana for Alaskans 21 and older make a good point when they say the war on drugs isn't working. But their answer, to legalize and regulate marijuana like alcohol and tobacco, leaves too many unanswered questions.We know that anyone attempting to sell marijuana would be in violation of federal law. The feds might not go after the user, but it's unlikely they would tolerate a retail vendor.So how would this work, exactly? Proponents say they've deliberately left that up to the Legislature and whatever regulatory body the state creates. That leaves voters not really knowing exactly what they're voting for.Proponents also argue that regulated, taxed and limited to adults, marijuana likely would be used less by youngsters. That's not a fact; it's a guess.This initiative raises a fair question and also elevates the level of debate in that it asks Alaskans to look at marijuana use and law enforcement with intelligence and reason. Alaskans have done that before -- voters approved the medical marijuana initiative in 1998, a simple act of decency that the state has hamstrung with regulations.But this initiative also asks us to vote for a legalized drug experiment with too many variables. Prudence says no.bottom line: Vote NO on Ballot Measure 2.http://www.adn.com/opinion/story/5716792p-5650047c.html
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on October 27, 2004 at 08:51:52 PT

Press Release from EurekAlert
Public release date: 27-Oct-2004Yale to study marijuana, ecstasy and teen cognitive deficits
Yale School of Medicine has received a $1.7 million grant to study whether a history of use of MDMA (ecstasy) and marijuana is associated with cognitive deficits in adolescents. The study, which will include 200 adolescent participants, also will examine whether sustained abstinence from drug use leads to recovery of cognitive function in this population. The grant builds on a preliminary study by principal investigator, Leslie Jacobsen, M.D., associate professor of psychiatry, and colleagues, showing evidence of abnormal function in the hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in memory. "Although we know a great deal about lasting effects of drug use on cognitive function in adults, very little is known about this issue in teenagers," Jacobsen said. "A better understanding of the cognitive profile of adolescents with histories of drug use will help us develop more effective treatments to help adolescents stop using drugs and remain drug free. This study will also address the critical question of whether there is recovery of cognitive function after sustained abstinence in this population." The study will compare subjects with and without a history of drug use by cognitive measures and functional magnetic resonance imaging, a non-invasive method of measuring brain function. All subjects will receive abstinence-oriented treatment and will be followed for two years. The study is being funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Contact: Jacqueline Weaverjacqueline.weaver yale.edu203-432-8555Yale University http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-10/yu-yts102704.php
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