cannabisnews.com: Battling From The Fringe 





Battling From The Fringe 
Posted by FoM on November 26, 1999 at 08:13:34 PT
By Larry Campbell, Daily News Reporter 
Source: Anchorage Daily News
This is what Don Quixote would look like if he lived in the 20th century and smoked dope. Stocky, wispy blond hair tied in a ponytail, clean shaven, white shirt with his blue necktie hanging loose. A bottle of single malt scotch on the desk. 
This is H. Thompson Prentzel III, alias Harold T. Prentzel, alias Tom Prentzel. Depending on whom you talk to, he's a champion for Alaskans' privacy rights to smoke marijuana or just another dope felon. Prentzel is the author and co-sponsor of the Drug Abuse Medicalization, or D.A.M., initiative. His is one of two proposed initiatives making the rounds to free Alaska from its quarter-century-long legal limbo over who can use weed and when. Right now the issue is pretty confusing. Prentzel's initiative would make things simple: Possession up to 4 ounces by an adult in the home would be OK. Medical use would be OK too. And people in jail for nonviolent marijuana offenses would be freed to seek help for their addictions. But having an idea is one thing. Getting people to sign the petition is another. Last year, the effort gathered little more than 8,000 signatures, only a third of what was needed to get the question on the ballot. Now he has until June 17 to get enough signatures to get the question on the November 2000 ballot. And it's hard, as Prentzel is finding out again this year. "Yeah, one of my volunteers just landed in jail last week, but I don't want to talk about that," he said Wednesday in his downtown office. "I know, it feels like I'm doing this all myself. And I'm not too smart when it comes to organizing people. I need some help." A second measure, circulated by Libertarian Party activists, also is aimed at next November's election. Known as 99HEMP, this initiative is almost identical to Prentzel's, except it calls for marijuana to be regulated as alcohol is. It also calls for the state to challenge federal laws that would conflict with it and calls for an advisory panel to examine restitution possibilities for people convicted of marijuana-related crimes. The deadline for getting enough signatures is June 24. Alaska's dope history is fairly schizophrenic. In 1975, the state Supreme Court said we could smoke marijuana at home, based on the Alaska Constitution's strong privacy protections. That same year, the Alaska Legislature decriminalized possession of small amounts. In 1990 voters passed a ballot initiative trying to reverse all that. Three years later a Superior Court judge said the ballot initiative was unconstitutional. Last year, voters approved another initiative saying people who need it for medical purposes can use a little bit. This year the Legislature put rules on that initiative. And the federal government has always said dope is just plain illegal. Nowadays, most state law enforcement agencies are likely to just take people's small stash and let them go unless they have a greenhouse operation going. Enter Prentzel, a 41-year-old laborer and average Alaskan - or at least the average Alaskan from two decades ago. He likes to drink, smoke and chase women. He likes to party into the night and next morning. The freedom to do that is what drew him to the Last Frontier and Fairbanks in 1984. "I'd start out on Two Street (2nd Avenue), hitting the bars, then get a bunch of friends together and go watch the sun go down, then come back up," he said. "Then, about 10 minutes to 5 (a.m.), hit the liquor stores. "Those were the days. You just can't do that anymore." In 1992 he was growing dope in the Fairbanks area ATCO trailer he called home. "I'm a fiscal conservative," he said of his scores of plants. "I'm not going to pay premium prices when I can grow what I need." Two cops knocked on the door. The visit resulted in a federal marijuana conviction that sent him to penitentiaries in the Lower 48 for nearly two years. Since then there have been more arrests, for marijuana possession and drunken driving. He's beat some, done jail time for others. Now he's just trying to get D.A.M. on the ballot again. Anchorage attorney Phillip Weidner admires Prentzel's perseverance. Until recently, Weidner had the distinction of being the only attorney in the state to make a financial donation to the cause. "He's devoted to achieving a goal that is in the best interests of the citizens of the state of Alaska," Weidner said. "It would be alleviating a needless waste of state resources by prosecuting people for simply using marijuana. "The senseless incarceration of people for this is a sad reflection on the political nature of our laws and the persecution of certain groups under the guise of justice." Still, Pretzel battles pretty much on his own right now. What he said he needs is a boss, someone to run the campaign while he just gathers signatures. He said he's good at that, even though he's finding it nearly impossible to get into shopping malls. And he's run afoul of police at University of Alaska campuses here and in Fairbanks. UAA kicked him off in 1997. And in Fairbanks: "If you see Mr. Prentzel, would you please let him know I'm looking for him," UAF Police Chief Terry Vrabec told a reporter earlier this week. There are certain people in this world who just can't seem to cross paths with a cop peacefully. They are the ones who say they were just having fun and not hurting anyone as the handcuffs click. Most of them take their punishment and go away. They stay low, try to avoid attention. That's Prentzel, until it comes to the initiative petition. "I guess I'm just feisty," he said, allowing himself a little grin, then turning serious. "I'm not going to quit. We're talking about basic privacy rights here. And when you know you have the ability to right a wrong, you do something about it. It's an obligation." State Sen. Loren Leman was chief sponsor of the law approved earlier this year that added more stringent rules to the 1998 medical marijuana measure. He was a little dismayed earlier this week to hear that full legalization is still being pursued. "I did think that last spring we'd laid this issue to rest for some time," he said. Leman thinks the laws against open use of the drug are fine as they are now. He'd rather not see a return to late 1970s and '80s. "Of course, anyone has the right to petition," Leman said. "But any time you're trying to build a consensus so you can get these kinds of things through, if you're someone on the fringe, it's going to be tougher." On the fringe. Prentzel said he's been described that way before. Doesn't matter to him. "This is what I do well," he said. * Reporter Larry Campbell can be reached at lcampbell adn.com. Published: November 26, 1999Copyright © 1999 The Anchorage Daily News Related Article:Medical Marijuana List Tops Out at 17 Registration - 8/03/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread2323.shtml
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