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MJ Legalization Officially Makes Alaska Ballot
Posted by CN Staff on February 27, 2014 at 10:06:48 PT
By Steven Nelson 
Source: U.S. News & World Report
Juneau -- Alaska residents will decide Aug. 19 if "The Last Frontier" will be the third U.S. jurisdiction to legalize marijuana and regulate its sale. The state’s lieutenant governor, Mead Treadwell, confirmed Wednesday that a pro-pot initiative effort cleared the legal requirements and ordered election officials to put legalization before voters.The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana in Alaska submitted 45,000 signatures Jan. 8 for the ballot measure, about 36,000 of which were validated by the state. Slightly more than 30,000 signatures were required.
“A bipartisan tidal wave of public support for regulating marijuana like alcohol in Alaska has pushed this issue onto the ballot, and we will be running an aggressive campaign designed to build on that momentum,” campaign spokesman Taylor Bickford said in a statement.Adults over age 21 would be allowed to posses up to 1 ounce of marijuana and grow six plants at home if the initiative is approved by voters.Stores selling recreational marijuana would be licensed by the state’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. The legislature would be given the option of creating a Marijuana Control Board.A quirk in state law requires the measure to appear on the August ballot alongside the primary elections of political parties.A poll released Feb. 5 by Public Policy Polling found 55 percent support and 39 percent opposition to legalization among Alaskans. A March 2013 poll by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research found 60 percent support.For years, Alaska was the only state where it was legal to possess marijuana, following a 1975 Alaska Supreme Court decision allowing adults over age 18 to possess 4 ounces of pot and grow 24 plants at home. The pioneering court ruling considered nearly all of the present-day arguments for and against marijuana, including driving under the influence, the effect of the drug on children and the large number of marijuana-related arrests. It found the state constitution’s privacy guarantees trumped the government’s right to ban pot merely to “protect the individual from his own folly.”Marijuana, the court found, is “far more innocuous in terms of physiological and social damage than alcohol or tobacco.” It remained a legitimate state interest, the court found, to prohibit use by drivers and children, as well as its sale.Alaskans voted to recriminalize the drug in 1990 – 54 to 46 percent – but that law was overturned in 2003 by the Alaska Court of Appeals. A 2004 initiative to explicitly legalize marijuana failed with only 44 percent support, and in 2006 the state legislature approved a new law criminalizing pot.The Alaska legalization initiative would impose a $50-per-ounce tax on marijuana, unlike Colorado – which reaps 25 percent in state taxes from pot sales on top of local taxes – and Washington, which will impose a 25 percent tax on marijuana transactions, in addition to local sales taxes, when stores open in the state this summer.The Alaska vote may be followed by legalization fights elsewhere. Residents of Arizona, California, Oregon and Washington, D.C., may vote on legalization initiatives in November, with Oregon seen as the surest bet for a win by pro-pot campaigners. The New Hampshire House of Representatives voted Jan. 15 to legalize and regulate pot, but the bill is unlikely to become law this year.Legalization foes see the upcoming ballot campaigns as an opportunity to break the momentum of pro-pot campaigners. "We feel that if Oregon or Alaska could be stopped, it would disrupt the whole narrative these groups have that legalization is inevitable," Kevin Sabet, executive director of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, told The New York Times. Many states have reduced pot possession penalties and 20 states and Washington, D.C., allow the drug for medical uses. A Florida initiative to allow medical marijuana – which requires 60 percent support to pass, but which polls suggest is enormously popular – will appear on November ballots.“This is shaping up to be another big year for the movement to end marijuana prohibition,” says Mason Tvert, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project and co-director of Colorado’s successful Amendment 64 legalization campaign. “Voters in Alaska will consider regulating marijuana like alcohol, voters nearly 5,000 miles away in the opposite corner of the country will consider legalizing it for medical purposes and everyone in between will be watching.”Steven Nelson is a reporter at U.S. News & World Report. Source: U.S. News & World Report (US)Author:  Steven Nelson Published: February 27, 2014Copyright: 2014 U.S. News & World ReportWebsite: http://www.usnews.com/Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/gfkqitBTURL: http://drugsense.org/url/Ren5AZvPCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml 
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Comment #4 posted by Sam Adams on February 28, 2014 at 13:29:24 PT
question
>>>For years, Alaska was the only state where it was legal to possess marijuana, following a 1975 Alaska Supreme Court decision allowing adults over age 18 to possess 4 ounces of pot and grow 24 plants at home.Why change it to 6 plants now? I thought we were trying to move forward, not backward. The AK Supreme Court was more realistic about this in 1975 than MPP is now, why the fixation with tiny home grows? It will mean almost any home grower can be busted.
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Comment #3 posted by Oleg the Tumor on February 28, 2014 at 08:44:30 PT:
Wouldn't you love to see the "We" list? 
"We feel that if Oregon or Alaska could be stopped, it would disrupt the whole narrative these groups have that legalization is inevitable," Kevin Sabet, executive director of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, told The New York Times. So the question must be asked: who is this mysterious "We" that wants to stop processes put into motion by ballot initiatives, petitions, and a constant cry for sanity that can not and will not cease?The re-legalization of cannabis is a quest for justice.So long as the history of what happened to this plant remains hidden by The Great Lie, our children's minds will remain in darkness as to the truth. They in turn, will pass on to their children only what they have been told.The truth is that in 1937, this plant was made illegal for the sake of names like Rockefeller, Morgan and their ilk.
They had their reasons and they paid cash, stock and favors.
 These people knew what they were doing and they knew that their activities were unethical, immoral and illegal. They justified what they were doing by their own personal recognizance. This is a typical human failing, and we see it again and again in history.It's time for everyone to stand up and speak right out loud who We are!The prohibition of cannabis is what is illegal!We the People will always seek Process (Justice) and Freedom, for the two are as inextricable now as they were in 1776.When our Justice Process proves itself paralyzed, then our Freedom must also be considered compromised!
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Comment #2 posted by The GCW on February 27, 2014 at 13:26:20 PT
I is for Ignoid.
And the IGNOID sez, "We feel that if Oregon or Alaska could be stopped, it would disrupt the whole narrative these groups have that legalization is inevitable,"GCW is for Green Collar Worker and I say the ignoid is ignorant. Win and the ignoids must find another non-profit money making gig. Put Florida on that list too because when Florida wins it'll be another huge stake in the vampires sour decrepit heart.At the fork in the road, the ignoid sold his soul to the devil and We all have to live with the consequences. But We can shine a light on the ignoid, and beat the devil.BEAT the DEVIL.That's what ending cannabis prohibition is: beating the devil.Cannabis prohibition and extermination is the devil's law.
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Comment #1 posted by The GCW on February 27, 2014 at 13:13:18 PT
A is for Alaska
Mason Tvert has a splendid way of saying things:“Voters in Alaska will consider regulating marijuana like alcohol, voters nearly 5,000 miles away in the opposite corner of the country will consider legalizing it for medical purposes and everyone in between will be watching.”
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