ALASKANS CAN END WRONG, INEFFECTIVE MARIJUANA BAN

Millions of Americans who are highly productive and stable secretly choose
marijuana over martinis, saying that marijuana is less toxic to their
bodies than alcohol. But while the government classifies both substances as
drugs, mysteriously one is legal while the other is not.

The scientific evidence does not justify this distinction. The National
Academy of Sciences has concluded that marijuana is one of the least
dangerous drugs, legal or otherwise. More than a dozen commissions in the
U.S. and other countries have found that its dangers have been exaggerated
and that moderate use is rarely harmful.

On the other hand, alcohol is a leading cause of disease, violence and
accidents. So why has the U.S. government arrested millions of adults who
prefer marijuana? Shouldn't adults have the right to choose marijuana over
martinis?

As with alcohol, the best way to control any harmful effects of marijuana
is with a detailed set of regulations. For example, just as it is (and
should be) illegal for an individual to drive a car under the influence of
alcohol, so too it is (and should be) illegal for an individual to drive a
car under the influence of marijuana or any other psychoactive drug.
However, the use of blanket criminal prohibitions for adults is profoundly
wrong in principle and generally ineffective in practice.

Blanket criminal prohibition is profoundly wrong in principle because the
government has no business using its police powers to punish adults for
what they decide to do with their own minds and bodies. On the most basic
level, the state has no legitimate power to send people to prison for
eating too much red meat, even if an excess of red meat demonstrably leads
to premature heart attacks and strokes. The police power of the state is
legitimately used to prevent one citizen from injuring another, and to
punish him if he does; it is illegitimately used to prevent adults from
managing their own bodies and minds, or to punish them when they do.

The principle here articulated is not a recently invented one. To the
contrary, it is America's obsession with criminalization that is relatively
recent. This approach began in 1914 when Congress passed the Harrison Act,
soon followed by hundreds of federal and state laws imposing criminal
penalties for possession, sale and purchase of a wide variety of substances
- -- including alcohol.

The stated purposes of such laws were to make drugs less available, to
interdict supplies and to deter commercial transactions. But the laws of
prohibition accomplished none of these purposes. Alcohol prohibition was
abandoned as a failure almost 70 years ago. However, criminal prohibition
of other drugs continued, and with the passage of the federal Marijuana
Stamp Act in 1937, marijuana became prohibited as well.

Alaska's own history of marijuana prohibition is rather schizophrenic. In
1975, the Alaska Supreme Court found in Ravin v. State that Alaskans'
constitutional right to privacy protects the possession of small quantities
of marijuana for personal, private use by adults in their homes. However,
in 1990, Alaskans recriminalized marijuana for any use whatsoever, leaving
law enforcement officers at a loss to reconcile this new state prohibition
with the constitutional right to privacy still protected under Ravin. Most
recently, in 1998, Alaskan voters reconsidered this blanket prohibition,
became informed about the benefits of marijuana for patients with certain
debilitating illnesses, and approved a ballot measure allowing for the
regulated medicinal use of marijuana. But today, chronically ill Alaskans
continue to suffer because state law still prohibits them from obtaining
marijuana for medicinal use.

In approving medicinal use of marijuana two years ago, Alaskans exercised
common sense and compassion. That same common sense and compassion dictate
that people should not be made criminals simply for choosing marijuana over
martinis.

If Ballot Measure 5 passes, the Legislature will adopt reasonable
regulations implementing the new law in a way that protects public safety
while also protecting the rights of adults to choose marijuana over more
harmful substances like alcohol. It's time to regulate and tax marijuana
the same way we regulate and tax alcohol. Please get the facts, get
informed and vote YES on Ballot Measure 5.