POTHEADS ORGANIZE FOR ALASKA INITIATIVE ANCHORAGE - The folks behind a statewide ballot initiative to decriminalize marijuana in Alaska will stare you down with their glassy eyes and sermonize on the numerous commercial uses for industrial hemp, the environmental benefits of hemp production and the medicinal benefits of the cannabis plant. And sure, the Nov. 7 measure is about all of those things. Mostly, though, it's about the freedom to get stoned. "In most places, you have to pass a pee test in order to work here," says Soren Wuerth, a former head of the Alaska Green Party who works at the Free Hemp in Alaska campaign office in Anchorage. "In our place, you have to fail the pee test to work here." Efforts to change laws, whatever they may be, tend to focus on incremental steps. But instead of adopting a deliberate strategy, backers of the Alaska marijuana initiative have declared anarchy. The initiative is so sweeping - it not only would legalize pot for personal use but grant amnesty to anyone with marijuana convictions - that even the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and High Times, the Sports Illustrated for potheads, tire slow to support the measure. The Free Hemp in Alaska campaign office is plastered with orange stickers that organizers found while rummaging through Inventories of secondhand office supplies. The stickers, probably from a bakery, read, "Baked with pride in Alaska." If the initiative passes, Alaska will be the only state in the country to legalize marijuana consumption, possession, distribution and cultivation for personal use, practiced in private. The law would apply to anyone 18 and older, even though Alaskans aren't allowed to buy cigarettes until they are 19 or alcohol until 21. It would release any Alaskan currently behind bars for a marijuana-related crime and clear the criminal records of those with past convictions. And it would convene a panel to consider restitution to those who have been imprisoned. Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles opposes the measure. A former attorney for Alaska under President Bush, Wev Shea, is tirelessly campaigning against it. "If this passes, Alaska is going to basically be the drug haven of North America," Shea says. Political consultants in Alaska say the measure has a good shot at passing, helped by a predicted high turnout for the presidential race and a high-profile property-tax-limit initiative. When handicapping the election, there also are practical things to consider. Political pundits and people on both sides of the issue agree: Alaskans are herb-friendly. Two years ago, Alaskans voted overwhelmingly to legalize marijuana use for medical patients. Washington and Oregon are among six states that have passed similar laws recently. Marijuana for private, recreational use was once legal in Alaska. In 1975 the state Supreme Court extended the constitutional right to privacy to marijuana use. In 1983, however, the legislature limited amounts protected under the law to 4 ounces or less. And in 1990, voters passed an initiative that made marijuana illegal again. Keith Stroup, NORML founder and executive director, says the group now supports the Alaska initiative, figuring it could inspire a movement in other states. The group had musician Willie Nelson, an avowed pothead, tape radio commercials supporting the initiative. But Stroup still has misgivings. The law would conflict with federal law if the state began to regulate marijuana sales as it does alcohol, and federal law likely would prevail, he says. Choosing his words diplomatically, he also says the section calling for a panel to examine reparations for ex-cons is "language that is intemperate strategically." "I think somebody got a little carried away," Stroup says, "It's easy to find fault with a word here or an attitude there, but this law essentially says it is no longer a crime to possess, use, cultivate or sell marijuana. And that's a very important statement."
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