Posted on 02/23/2015 12:24:09 PM PST by ConservingFreedom
Tomorrow, Feb. 24th, will mark a major step forward in the implementation of Alaska’s marijuana legalization law, as personal cultivation, possession, and consumption become legal. Last November, Alaskans voted 53-47% in favor of marijuana legalization, making it the first “red” state to pass such a law.
“First Colorado and Washington, now Alaska and Oregon – and all with levels of support higher than the winning candidates for governor and U.S. Senate achieved in those states,” said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. “Legalizing marijuana just makes sense now to voters across the political spectrum and – as we’ll likely see in 2016 – across the country.”
Starting tomorrow, it will be legal for someone 21 years of age or over to possess up to an ounce of marijuana, grow up to six marijuana plants in their homes (provided that only three of them are mature at any time), and to share up to 1 ounce of marijuana with someone 21 or over and give them up to six immature marijuana plants. Private consumption will be completely legal for those 21 and over, though public consumption remains illegal.
Commercial marijuana businesses that grow, process, bake, or sell marijuana products won’t be able to legally operate until spring or summer of 2016. In January, the Alaska legislature began working to bring existing criminal statutes into line with the voter initiative. Tuesday marks the beginning of a nine-month rulemaking process during which the regulations for marijuana businesses will be developed and refined. Under the provisions of the voter initiative, the state is expected to begin accepting applications for operating permits by February 2016, a full year from now. This timeline was clearly defined in the voter initiative and, so far, the process is on schedule.
Alaska’s new law is expected to increase law enforcement resources available to focus on dangerous and violent crime. Once retail sales begin next year, the law is also expected to bolster the state’s economy by creating jobs and generating new revenue, as marijuana sales will be conducted by legitimate, tax-paying businesses that test their products and require proof of age.
November’s election solidified drug policy reform’s place as a mainstream political issue, as voters across the country accelerated the unprecedented momentum to legalize marijuana and end the wider drug war. Marijuana legalization measures passed in Alaska, Oregon, and Washington, D.C., while groundbreaking criminal justice reforms passed in California and New Jersey. These successes are boosting efforts already underway in California, Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, Maine, Nevada, Arizona and elsewhere to end marijuana prohibition.
Reminds me of Prohibition days.
And Mr Dope pusher is crowing about more dope being made available.
Most of that has been legal for decades under Ravin v. State.
My point is that Alaska hasn’t fallen into mass riots and hysteria despite being legal to grow and possess for all of these years.
More dope, lower price. Is it still going to be enough to to keep Mr. Pusher in business?
Dumb question but I see guys getting busted for grass on Alaska State Troopers show all the time. Is that staged?
When you've gotten mature enough to start viewing your history by centuries, you began to notice a lot of occasions in which fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
You are still in that little child "Libertarian" stage of understanding.
Not knowing the circumstances, hard to say. There are limits.
Possession and growing was legal at HOME with certain limits. Perhaps it was because they had it outside.
Thanks, these are typically vehicle stops and searches.
Such as the various prohibitions aka criminal enrichment acts that this nation has enacted.
So what happens if you have 1.01 ounces, or 4 plants, or if you give someone 7 immature plants?
Why did they bother with these caveats? How can you legalize something then restrict the quantity? Aside from being oxymoronic, how are people supposed to obtain it if you cannot import it, grow it, trade it, sell it, share it etc?
It seems like the psychosis which weed causes accrues mainly to hysterical Prohibitionists.
Subjecting someone to prison for merely possessing the wrong plant, medicine, or liquid spirits is the height of nanny-state authoritarianism, and no amount of "what about the children" hand-wringing can ever excuse such Tyranny.
A government which can imprison you for possessing a plant is a government that is too big and with too much power.
Those who argue for such arbitrary law are using the same reasoning which the left uses in order to justify their various Tyrannies.
I categorically reject such authoritarian logic, from either side of the political spectrum.
When somebody directly infringes on somebody else's rights, via force, fraud, or negligence, that is when a crime has occurred, and then and only then is when criminal prosecution is warranted.
When it comes to the challenging, perilous notion of human freedom, warts and all, the Prohibitionist mind often seems more warped than the even the most despicable drug addict.
"Those who know what's best for us must rise and save us from ourselves."
That's quite a turnaround from 2004 when legalization lost 44-56%.
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