INITIATIVE TO LEGALIZE POT FAILS BIG

A massive spending campaign by the fans of legalized marijuana in
Alaska failed to convince voters.

With about 82 percent of precincts reporting Tuesday night, voters
rejected by a crushing margin the notion that pot should be legal for
adults 21 and older to possess, grow, buy or give away. Backers of
Ballot Measure 2 spent huge sums making their case in print and
broadcast media, vastly outspending foes.

The proposal, which would have allowed for state regulation and
taxation of pot, did not appear to be doing better than a similar but
more ambitious initiative in 2000. People on both sides of the issue
this year thought, or worried, Measure 2 had a fighting chance because
it asked less of voters than the one in 2000. Alaska voters leaving
the polls Tuesday cited everything from the state's substance abuse
problems to fears about stoned drivers or sending a mixed message to
kids as reasons why they voted against the measure.

David Finkelstein, treasurer of one of the main groups pushing for
legalization, conceded defeat. He said the campaign had a lot of
momentum until about mid October, when federal officials, including a
deputy White House drug czar, visited the state with an anti-drug message.

"Then there was that horrific, gruesome murder story that was super
depressing," he said, referring to the recent arrest in Anchorage of a
16-year-old who was charged with first-degree murder for killing his
stepmother and dumping her in a freezer while high on marijuana. "It
sort of derailed the message there for a while," Finkelstein said.
Matthew Fagnani, chairman of the sole opposition group to Measure 2
and president of the local drug-testing firm WorkSafe Inc., said he
was "very happy" about the results. "Today is a good day for the sake
of the future of Alaska's children," he said.

U.S. Attorney Tim Burgess said he was relieved and heartened that
Alaskans took the issue seriously. "Substance abuse and drug addiction
are a tremendous problem in Alaska," he said. "It is something that
the law enforcement community realizes because they have to deal with
it every day."

Alaska voters had gone both ways in the past. They legalized marijuana
for medical purposes in 1998. Two years later, 59 percent of voters
turned down a proposition similar to Measure 2, though that
initiative, which included retroactive amnesty and possible
reparations for people convicted of pot crimes, didn't fail as
miserably as some expected given its reach. About 41 percent of voters
approved it.

One of the four groups pressing for legalization this time around was
bankrolled to the tune of $850,000 by the Washington, D.C.-based
Marijuana Policy Project, which also funded legalization efforts in
Nevada, Oregon and Montana this year. Another of the groups, which did
most of the legwork to get legalization on the ballot, had hundreds of
Alaska supporters, according to its campaign finance reports. The pro
side argued that marijuana was innocuous enough that it shouldn't be
the government's business if people want to smoke it. They said the
unsuccessful prohibition of pot wastes millions of dollars and that if
the state would regulate it, they could save money, get rid of the
black market and make pot harder for kids to get but easier for
adults, including medical marijuana patients, to obtain.

Former Kotzebue police chief Paul Nolton, 46, disagreed. "We didn't
need another legal drug out here," he said after voting in the
northwestern hub community Tuesday morning, where temperatures hovered
around zero. "Alcohol has caused enough problems." Maija Johnson, 27,
also of Kotzebue, agreed. "If I could have voted to make alcohol
illegal, I would have," she said. "There's so much substance abuse."
To the southeast, in Fairbanks, Catherine Witt, a public educator,
said she voted no because of the mixed message legalization would send
to kids while Shelly Huhtamen, 30, said she worried pot would lead
users to harder drugs. Huhtamen added: "I have a 4-month-old and I
don't want to be driving, wondering if other drivers are stoned." Ann
Rippy, 48, also of Fairbanks, said she couldn't make up her mind. "I'm
so divided on that one I didn't even vote." Rachel Nelson, 32 of
Sitka, voted for legalization. "I know a lot of people with cancer and
HIV and it's helped them," she said. "Pot is going to be here whether
we like it or not, so it might as well be legal."

In Anchorage, Beverly Bradley-Acuna, 61, said she voted against
legalization. "I think it would encourage too many people from the
Lower 48 to come up here and that would increase crime," she said. Wev
Shea, a former U.S. attorney for Alaska, called the returns
"wonderful." "It's going down strong," he said, adding that he thought
talk radio shows in the state and the Alaska State Medical
Association, which came out against legalization, helped to defeat the
measure, as well as all the Outside funding.

"I think it just became clear to people that this was an Outside
movement to basically experiment with Alaska," Shea said.

Finkelstein said it was too soon to say if legalization proponents
would put the issue before Alaska voters again. He said the public
discussion about pot has been going on in Alaska since the 1970s and
he didn't think it would end any time soon. Clearly the election
results show a significant minority of residents are willing to try a
different approach to marijuana regulation, he said.

"Alaskans have shown they are open to change but they have to be
confident they know what they are going to get," he said. "The final
step will have to be even more moderate."