cannabisnews.com: Poll Pans Pot





Poll Pans Pot
Posted by FoM on October 05, 2000 at 07:19:12 PT
By Paul Queary, The Associated Press
Source: Anchorage Daily News 
 More than 60 percent of Alaskans surveyed in a recent poll oppose a ballot measure that would legalize marijuana and other hemp products, while 48 percent say they plan to vote against the property tax cap. The results of the Alaska Poll conducted by Dittman Research of Anchorage indicate less support for the marijuana initiative than its supporters had claimed and a continued decline in support for the statewide property tax initiative. 
Of the 518 Alaska residents surveyed, 61 percent opposed the marijuana measure, which would not only legalize pot and other hemp products but provide amnesty and possible restitution for people convicted of marijuana-related crimes in the past. Thirty-five percent favored the measure, with 6 percent undecided. The poll taken between Sept. 21 and Oct. 1 has a sampling error of 4 percent. On the property tax cap, only 39 percent of poll respondents said they would vote for the initiative, while 13 percent were undecided. The initiative would prevent municipalities from taxing at a rate higher than 1 percent, or $1,000 on a $100,000 house. It would also freeze assessments, allowing them to rise no more than 2 percent a year for inflation. Property would be reassessed to market value when sold or "newly constructed." If the marijuana measure becomes law, pot would be regulated like alcohol and anyone 18 or older could smoke it. Until 10 years ago, Alaskans were allowed to have small amounts of marijuana by a 1975 Alaska Supreme Court ruling. In 1990, voters recriminalized pot. Alaskans voted to legalize marijuana for medical use two years ago. But this year's sweeping legalization package appears to be in trouble. "I think they overreached," Dave Dittman, president of Dittman Research, pointing to the provisions allowing pot use by 18 year olds and giving amnesty to marijuana criminals. "Those are pretty scary things to a lot of people." Among groups in the survey, only those aged 18 to 24 favored the measure. In that group, 60 percent said they would vote for the initiative. Sil De Chellis of Free Hemp in Alaska, one of four groups backing the measure, said the organization's own polls showed the measure with more than 50 percent support. However, he would not disclose details. He defended the measure's amnesty provisions, calling them reasonable elements of a campaign aimed at ending a failed and expensive war on pot users. "The prisoners of war get to come home when the war's over," De Chellis said. Wev Shea, a former U.S. Attorney and a leader of the campaign against the marijuana initiative, was cautiously optimistic about the poll result. "It's a good indication that the voters are becoming educated," Shea said. "The main thing that concerns me about this thing is that the word isn't getting out." Opponents of the tax cap were also pleased with the survey, which showed greater opposition to the initiative than a similar poll Dittman conducted for a private client a month ago that showed the two sides in a statistical dead heat. Dittman provided the results of that survey to Alaskans United Against the Cap and helped interpret them. However, both the campaign and the pollster said they have no financial relationship. Ira Perman, campaign coordinator for the group, said the survey validates the campaign's strategy of using frequent public presentations to highlight the cap's potential impact. Opponents argue that the lost taxes would devastate education, cut into essential services and damage the economy. The cap has received intense attention in Anchorage from the news media. Anchorage residents in the poll showed the strongest opposition, with 57 percent saying they would vote no. "That part of the state that's had the most opportunity to look at it is most strongly opposed to it," Perman said. Poll respondents in the Fairbanks area and Southeast Alaska favored the cap. In Fairbanks, 47 percent said they would vote yes, with 42 percent opposed. Southeast residents favored the proposal 45 percent to 39 percent. Uwe Kalenka, one of the tax cap initiative's sponsors, dismissed the poll results as irrelevant. "Quite frankly, we don't give much credence to the polls," Kalenka said. "The only one that counts is on Nov. 8th." Sponsors of the initiative say it would impose discipline on local budgets and reduce the burden on homeowners for funding government. Source: Anchorage Daily News (AK)Published: October 5, 2000Author: Paul Queary, The Associated PressCopyright: 2000 The Anchorage Daily NewsContact: letters adn.comWebsite: http://www.adn.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:Free Hemp in AlaskaAl Anders, Chair2603 Spenard RoadAnchorage, Alaska 99503 (907) 278-HEMP E-mail: freehempinak gci.netVisit their web site: http://www.freehempinak.orgHemp 2000R.L. Marcy, ChairP.O. Box 90055Anchorage, AK 99509907-376-2232 (p)Fax: 907-376-0530 (f)E-mail: marcy hemp2000.orgVisit their web site: http://www.hemp2000.org  Free Hemp Battle Cry for Local Groups http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7254.shtmlHigh Hopes in Alaska for Sweeping Pot Law http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7173.shtmlAlaska Hemp Initiative 2000http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6045.shtmlCannabisNews Articles - Alaska:http://cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=alaska 
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Comment #5 posted by mungojelly on October 07, 2000 at 06:23:57 PT:
amnesty is not a trojan horse
Amnesty is a sensible, rational portion of any drug reform legislation. Do not let your fear of the big bad unbeatable drug warriors make you lose your grounding in rationality. Anyone who thinks it is "extreme" to release from prison someone who is presently incarcerated for the "crime" of growing marijuana plants is not really in favor of legalization. People should not be imprisoned for something which is legal. This is dead obvious. Don't allow yourself to be sidetracked or confused. 
mungojelly
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Comment #4 posted by Neil on October 05, 2000 at 18:28:55 PT
I smell a rat!
Those in the Alaskan movement must be wondering who was responsible for adding the amnesty and restitution portions to the upcoming initiative. It's obvious that those are issues for a later date after marijuana was legal. It's too much to bite off for most voters and it should have been left off. If I was opposed to marijuana legalization, I would be working within the movement to legalize by advocating the inclusion of spoiling amendments to the initiatives.
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Comment #3 posted by Kanabys on October 05, 2000 at 11:50:50 PT
I have to agree.....
with Dr. Russo. No war has ever been won by just going in and killing the enemy with a single blow (even in Japan it took two blows, and what a hammer!) I think it has to be an incremental process. It's a sad thing I know, but don't get me wrong, I would simply Love to be able to chunk the whole WoD thing out the window and stomp on it, but things just usually don't work like that.
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Comment #2 posted by mungojelly on October 05, 2000 at 11:42:48 PT:
we don't have to win
We don't have to win in order to make a political impact. Prohibitionists might try to minimize the results of this election -- "Ah, see, they lost! Clearly prohibition will continue forever!" -- but the fact remains that 35% is not an insignificant amount of support. The fact that this is an extreme initiative will serve to demonstrate that there is a large core of people who are in favor of real cannabis reform. 35% supporting not just decrim, not just legalization of possession, but a distribution mechanism modeled on alcohol and even amnesty for convicts. We would gain nothing by watering down our political goals. Legalizing marijuana but not granting amnesty to convicts would be senseless -- to even allow it as a possibility is to admit that it is somehow sensible to allow people to remain in a jail cell for using or distributing this plant. We will gain nothing through this sort of ill-formed compromise. There is no significant percentage of people who support legalization but not amnesty -- it is simply not a logically consistent position. We will only get 35% in this election. Perhaps we will only get 40% in the next election. Soon enough, however, those numbers will cross over 50%, and cannabis prohibition will finally come to an end. 
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Comment #1 posted by Ethan Russo, MD on October 05, 2000 at 07:45:05 PT:
Getting Ready to Duck
What I am about to say may not be popular. It is true that it is not over until it is over, but I would be surprised if the Alaska measure passes (although I hope to be wrong). The reason is that a lot of mainstream folk will see it as extreme. Those in the movement have to decide which is better: fabulously failing to achieve the whole enchilada, or consistently winning by taking incremental, achievable steps one-by-one. The latter approach has worked elsewhere, and in the process, helped to bring other people on-board once that they understood that the doomsayers were wrong about the implications of the cannabis ballot measures. 
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