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."