ALASKANS POISED FOR LANDMARK VOTE ON LEGALIZING MARIJUANA

The State That Once Had Legal Pot Will Ask Voters About It Again, But The
Wide Scope Of The Initiative Threatens Its Approval

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA - The giant cannabis leaf painted on its outside wall
tells you that Cafe Paix is less about caffeine than about another popular
drug.

But nobody is toking up, nor is there any lingering scent of past
indulgence. This could all change Tuesday if voters back Proposition 5, an
initiative on the state ballot that would legalize marijuana.

Cafe Paix owner Chuck Ritchie hopes the initiative passes so his cafe can
fulfil its destiny as a smoke-filled room"Marijuana is Alaska's number-one
crop. It's everywhere. There's nothing that is ever going to stop it," said
Ritchie. "So we might as well make it legal because the drug war isn't
working. It's just costing money."

This is also the view next door at the storefront headquarters of Free Hemp
in Alaska, campaign central for the controversial initiative. Inside,
pro-marijuana activists are set to wind the clock back a decade to when pot
smoking was legal in Alaska.

The initiative is more than just about making it possible to burn a fattie
in the living room after the kids are asleep. In the most sweeping
legislation proposal to ever appear on a state ballot.

Besides legalizing marijuana for anyone 18 and over, Proposition 5 would
give amnesty to anyone convicted of marijuana-related charges and create
automatic amnesty for those currently behind bars. It would also require a
panel to consider restitution to those who have been imprisoned.

The far-reaching nature of the initiative could prove to be its undoing. "I
think it was a mistake to shoot the moon," said Mike Doogan, a columnist
with the Anchorage Daily News, who supports simple legalization.

Many will be wary of legalizing pot for 18-year olds when the drinking age
is 21. The same people will also be troubled by the idea of suspending all
convictions or giving reparations.

The history of marijuana in Alaska is a mixed one. In 1975, the state
Supreme Court extended the constitutional right to privacy to marijuana
use. In 1983, the the state legislature restricted amounts protected by the
law to four ounces or less. But in 1990, voters passed an initiative to
recriminalize it. Then voters in 1998 approved an initiative legalizing
medical use of the drug.

The pro-marijuana activists will talk ad nauseum about the neverending uses
of hemp and about how a joint of marijuana is safer than alcohol and about
as dangerous as a bar of chocolate. They signed up more than 40,000
registered voters to get the measure on the ballot, more than double the
required number.

"It's the new millennium. People are sick and tired of the drug war
everywhere," said Al Anders, the chief Free Hemp advocate. "And especially
in Alaska, a state that had marijuana legal for 15 years. We're not afraid
of it. Alaska is almost a free country."

Anders is a political organizer for the Libertarian party, a political
movement opposed to many forms of government regulations, especially the
U.S. government's ill-fated war on drugs.

Libertarian party officials here have been the prime movers behind the
marijuana initiative. Anders has worked without a salary full-time for more
than a year on the marijuana initiative.

While the number of people Anders has signed up in support of Prop 5 is
impressive, passage is far from certain. Barely 25 people showed up to hear
a debate on the topic recently at the University of Alaska. Those who did
heard Wev Shea, a former U.S. attorney, say that Prop 5 "borders on pure
anarchy."

Shea, a former naval officer, has become the chief opponent of the measure.
His criticism has an apocalyptic intensity. "Drug traffickers are one step
up from child molesters," he told his audience, Shea said passage of the
initiative would turn Alaska into a haven for dopers from throughout America.

The proponents of Prop 5 point out that Alaska didn't become a drug mecca
between 1975 and 1990, when marijuana was legal. "Why would you come 3,000
miles across Canada to buy marijuana when you can buy it anywhere in the
U.S.?" said Sil DeChillis, 62, who moved to Alaska from California to help
the pro-pot cause. He claimes to have smoked marijuana daily for 44 years.

Opponents like Shea, however, are convinced that legalization would
accelerate the trafficking of pot, which is already Alaska's most lucrative
crash crop. Pot is grown throughout Alaska, but the Matanuska Valley, just
north of Anchorage, is ground zero in the pot war.

The dope grown here has an international reputation and a brand name that
has become a generic label for Alaska weed.

A local newspaper estimated the cost of Alaska's war on marijuana added up
to at least $6 million last year.

Police have escalated raids on growing operations here in past years. Among
those charged and arrested was Steve Baker, whose 80 plants were discovered
in 1996 in a garage next to his rural house. He was sentenced to three
years probation and ordered to pay back $20,000 to a local utility for
siphoning off electricity.

Baker, a strong backer of Prop 5, said that pot cultivation continues to be
prevalent in the Matanuska Valley. He noted that following a 1996 wildfire,
five per cent of 40 buildings and homes burnt had leftovers of
marijuana-growing operations.

Some people in the local criminal justice system question the costs and
time involved in prosecuting people for marijuana. Defence lawyer Verne
Rupright said most people charged with pot offences are average citizens,
not conventional criminals.

Sergeant Tim Bleicher, a state trooper who has spearheaded many pot raids,
defended marijuana prosecution. "Marijuana is a gateway drug," he said. Not
everybody who smokes marijuana will move on to harder drugs, but the people
who do use harder drugs started out with alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana."

Bleicher said legalization would result in the "degradation" of society.
"Children are going to see adults using the drug and we are going to see
the ramifications down the road in traffic and industrial accidents.

"How confident would any of us feel if the pilot flying our airplane is
under the influence?"

If the initiative has a hope of passing, it's because of the high value
people here place on privacy. The undeniable strain of populist
anti-government feeling is why many people here are exiles from the lower 48.

And it's why more than 60 percent of voters are neither registered
Republicans nor Democrats.

"Somebody once said that Alaska is a place of last chances and new
beginnings," said columnist Doogan. "I had a friend who said he was going
to get rich offering the Alaska Special: a divorce, a bankruptcy and a name
change."

While there is a certain truth to the notion of a libertarian Alaska, it's
one that can be overstated. In fact, the state has becoming increasingly
conservative in recent years. George W. Bush is a shoe-in for the
presidential race here, with Democrat Al Gore running a probable fourth.

And while Alaska conjures up visions of great open spaces, the state is one
of the most urban societies in the world. More than 70 per cent of Alaskans
live in three urban centres.

"Is this a more individualistic state than those in the Lower 48? Sure it
is," said Doogan.

"But is it a place that allows people to do whatever they want? No, it's not."