ALASKANS PUSH POT ON BALLOT

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 there," 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 (NORML) and
High Times, the Sports Illustrated for potheads, were slow to support the
measure.

The Free Hemp in Alaska campaign office is plastered with orange stickers
that read, "Baked with pride in Alaska."

Coming to Work High: It's a fitting motto for a campaign where some
volunteers and paid workers come to work high and where a few loiter near a
back door to sneak tokes, even though campaign protocol prohibits such
behavior.

Some volunteers, including a 16-year-old boy, say they are at the nonprofit
campaign working off court-imposed community-service sentences for
marijuana-related convictions.

The campaign has set up shop in a strip mall on one of Anchorage's seedier
streets. A yellow mural painted on the south face of the building reads,
"Vote Yes. Nov. 7, 2000." The message and date are separated by an image of
a giant green cannabis leaf.

The campaign office side door is always open, providing passage to an
adjacent espresso bar with trippy decor that is the informal hangout for
the potheads, libertarians and environmentalists behind the initiative.

Coffee Shop Pax is a shrine to dope. On the other side of the coffee house
is Exit Glass & Hemporium, which sells soap, string, satchels and shirts,
all made of hemp. It also sells handmade pipes and glass jars to store stashes.

Within these surroundings, initiative supporters feel invincible.

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.

"Our law wouldn't protect you if you are caught smoking in a car, but it
would protect you if you are driving it to a friend's house to smoke,"
explains Al Anders, chairman of Free Hemp in Alaska.

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 mari- juana-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.

Opposing Forces: Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles opposes the measure. A former
U.S. 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," he says.

Initiative supporter Mitch Mitchell, one year out of federal prison for
trafficking in 1,100 pounds of marijuana, thinks the initiative will be
good for tourism.

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 are also 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. 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, limited amounts were protected. And
in 1990, voters passed an initiative that made marijuana illegal again.