EFFORT TO LEGALIZE MARIJUANA BEGINS ANEW WITH STATE'S OK

Deadline: Backers Worry They Won't Get Enough Signatures.

Juneau -- A ballot measure seeking to legalize marijuana has cleared its
first major hurdle, but it's unclear whether sponsors have enough time to
put the question to voters in 2002.

The state on Friday approved an application for an initiative petition,
meaning supporters may start collecting the 28,783 signatures required to
get the measure on next year's ballot.

But the deadline to submit the signatures in time for the 2002 election is
Jan. 14, and sponsor Tim Hinterberger said the two-month window is a challenge.

"It's going to take a massive effort by volunteers," said Hinterberger, who
is pushing the measure through an Anchorage-based group called Free Hemp in
Alaska.

The measure would make it legal for people age 21 and older to grow, use,
sell or give away marijuana or other hemp products, according to a state
summary of the initiative. Marijuana could be regulated like alcohol or
tobacco, and the measure allows for laws limiting marijuana use in some
cases to protect public safety, the summary said.

Hinterberger and two other sponsors filed an initiative petition
application earlier this year, but it was rejected in July by the state
Department of Law. State attorneys said the original measure included
unconstitutional language, so the sponsors changed the wording and
resubmitted it in September. It passed legal review the second time.

If supporters miss the Jan. 14 deadline, they will continue gathering
signatures so that the question can be put to voters in 2004, Hinterberger
said.

Alaska voters last November rejected a marijuana legalization measure. In
1998, voters approved a measure allowing medical use of marijuana.