DOPEY DEALING

Marijuana Fight Diverts Attention From More Urgent Alaska Issues

What should have been a simple bill to help control Alaska's
methamphetamine epidemic has provoked a battle that is distracting
lawmakers from more important business.

On one side is the Alaska House, which passed a sensible meth-control
bill. On the other side is the Alaska Senate, which hijacked the bill
for its own purposes. Senate leaders used the bill to launch another
attack on the privacy rights that allow Alaska adults to possess
small amounts of marijuana in their own homes. The House refused to
go along with the controversial and expensive effort to recriminalize
possession of any amount of marijuana by adults. A majority of the
House wanted a bill to fight crystal meth, not take on a
constitutional battle over marijuana possession.

Unlike most other battles in the Capitol, this isn't a partisan
fight. Both the House and Senate are firmly controlled by
Republicans. Yet more than one in three House Republicans voted
earlier this year to reject the Senate version of the bill.

It's a fight about one chamber trying to make the other swallow a
controversial drug law.

Making matters worse is Gov. Frank Murkowski. Passing the marijuana
anti-privacy bill is a big priority for him. So big, that he's
threatened to add it to the special session that's supposed to deal
with the North Slope natural gas pipeline contract.

That would be a big mistake. Adding marijuana to the special session
won't mellow anyone out. It will unnecessarily agitate lawmakers and
divert attention from the multibillion-dollar decisions they have to
make about the gas line, the biggest development prospect in the
state's history.

Legislators and the governor need to focus on what's most important.
When you're scrambling to finish a roof on your house and a storm is
looming, you don't climb down the ladder and start spraying the lawn
with weed killer. Mixing in marijuana with the gas line is a surefire
way to make the special session go up in smoke.

Gov. Murkowski and the Republican Senate want to crack down on
Alaskans who roll their own. But in doing so, they're trying to roll
the House. Whether House members are worried about Alaskans' personal
privacy or their own legislative prerogatives, they have good reason
to stand their ground.

BOTTOM LINE: Leave the fight over marijuana recriminalization for
later. Focus on fighting meth and getting a gas line.