Posted on 12/16/2005 7:23:26 AM PST by Wolfie
Governor Set to Push Anti-Marijuana Legislation Again
The Murkowski administration will "hit the ground running" next session on a bill proposed last year to overturn a court decision on marijuana use, said Alaska Department of Law spokesman Mark Morones.
Alaskans are allowed to possess up to 4 ounces of marijuana in their homes for personal use but the bill could lower that amount to less than 1 ounce if it passes.
The Senate Health, Education and Social Services Committee heard from experts last session on both sides of the issue - some arguing marijuana is a threat to society and others saying pot is less harmful than a pack of cigarettes.
The bill is awaiting action in the Senate Finance Committee before it reaches the floor. Then it would head over to the House for review.
Alaska Assistant Attorney General Dean Guaneli said some of the state's arguments were misunderstood last session. The purpose of the bill is not to bust college students smoking pot in their dorms, but to go after commercial growers, he said.
"The police are not getting effective search warrants for marijuana growing operations," Guaneli said.
Even though officers can smell marijuana coming from a residence, it is not enough evidence to prove there is more than the 4 ounces needed to get a search warrant, he said.
Those possessing more than 4 ounces would be charged with a Class C felony and those with an ounce would be charged with a Class A misdemeanor, according to the bill.
Michael Macleod-Ball, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska, said the bill does not increase penalties for those growing commercial marijuana.
"Criminalizing those with small amounts of marijuana does not solve the problem," he said.
The bill also tampers with a right to privacy ruling that is unique to Alaska, Macleod-Ball said.
"All it does is give the police the ability to go into someone's home if they believe they have marijuana," he said.
A landmark court decision by the Alaska Supreme Court in 1975 made small amounts of marijuana kept at home by adults legal. It found no relationship between private use of the drug and the public welfare.
Experts who phoned in to the Senate committee meetings last session tried to show that in some cases smoking marijuana could lead to violence.
"If I smoke marijuana, I may not be led to rob a store. But I can lose my job and then be motivated to steal," John Fielder, a clinical psychologist at St. Mary's Medical Hospital in San Francisco, told the Senate committee last session.
The bill hearings are a platform to get testimony on the record so that if the bill passes, the findings can be used in court, Guaneli said.
The state will charge someone for possession of marijuana if the bill passes and use the suspect's trial to introduce the findings in the bill, he said. The judge may or may not use the findings to make his decision to overturn the long-standing ruling, Guaneli said.
The state wants to prevent marijuana from getting into the hands of children by going after local growers; if authorities can take out about half of the producers, then kids would be priced out of the market, Guaneli said.
The bill, Senate Bill 74, was bogged down last year because it was introduced in the middle of the session and needed extra time to get through the testimonies, Guaneli said.
Bills proposed last session that did not reach the House and Senate floors for a final vote are still alive because bills introduced in the two-year session remain on the table through 2006.
Quote the state constitution.
[crickets]
Yep, one of the things that made alcohol prohibition fail was that possession was legal.
Article I - Declaration of Rights
SECTION 22. RIGHT OF PRIVACY. The right of the people to privacy is recognized and shall not be infringed. The legislature shall implement this section.
The Alaska Court of Appeals ruled that Alaska residents may possess up to four ounces of marijuana in their own homes without any criminal or civil penalty. The ruling, which cites a 1975 Alaska Supreme Court finding that the Alaska constitution's privacy provisions protect the personal possession and use of marijuana in the home, once again makes Alaska the only state in the country with legal marijuana in the home.
Now if the Legislature is unhappy about this, they can try to amend the State Constitution to exclude marijuana possession from the explicit Right To Privacy guaranteed by the State Constitution. Of course, you might be on of those people who think that Constitutions just get in the way of Governemnt doing its "job", in which case you might want to hang out with some of your brethren over at DU.
Nothing about drugs, nothing about "four ounces".
Like your DU comrades, you've exposed yourself as a cheerleader for judicial legislation and an enemy of representative government.
Just the right to be left alone by the government. I know that scares you. Try sleeping with the lights on.
Euphemistic evasion. The "right" to four ounces of dope, by judicial fiat.
Why would someone not possess the natural right to stop and smell any flower?
What are you talking about?
"The "right" to four ounces of dope, by judicial fiat."
Why would someone not possess the natural right(as opposed to "by judicial fiat" to stop and smell any flower(in the privacy of their own home?)
Moreover, where is the power enumerated in the Constitution for the Government to eradicate gifts from God or ban their possession?
"Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God?" --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia, 1782.
GOD MADE HERB
GOD SAW THAT IT WAS GOOD
GOD GAVE IT TO MAN
Genesis 1:11
Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so.
Genesis 1:12
And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:29
And God said, "See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.
Four ounces is "the natural right", not three or five? How was that arrived at?
Reading organic tea leaves?
It stands unrelated to the four ounce standard the court created by an act of judicial legislation.
It is related in that it is on the continuum from merely being in the presence of this flower to propagator and supplier, somewhere between possessor and user, next to protector. Would you hang a man for smelling a flower? Are you doing anything less by stealing his property to quarter steroid addicted troopers in the WOSD?
Sorry, I don't speak Hempish.
No, every finite amount is the natural right ... but allowing four ounces still brings Alaska closer to the truth than allowing none.
A drug dealer with a cargo plane, blessed by Gaia.
Who have made laws against dope in 50 of the 50 states.
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