LAWMEN QUESTION WILLIE NELSON'S POT CLAIM

A country music legend is on Anchorage radio ads urging Alaska voters to
legalize marijuana.

"Hi, this is Willie Nelson," the man drawls in his weathered voice. "I've
been to Alaska several times, and I've always loved the people I've met and
appreciated your sense of personal freedom. But did you know you also have
the highest arrest rate for marijuana smoking in the entire country?"

Really? Alaska State Troopers and local police say they hardly ever take
someone away in handcuffs whose only crime is smoking marijuana, though
they may issue a citation and give the smoker a court date. One 23-year
veteran of the Anchorage Police Department said he'd never heard of an
arrest for smoking pot.

The ad, airing since last week, was paid for by Alaskans for Privacy. Its
chairman, Randall Patterson, said the arrest rate information came from the
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, based on a report
by Jon Gettman, who says his data are based on FBI statistics.

According to Gettman, the arrest figures are for selling as well as
possession and would include people arrested for, say, murder who also
happened to be carrying some marijuana.

The pigtailed Outlaw recorded the ad for free at this year's Farm Aid
concert in Virginia, Patterson said. Scoring him, done with the help of
NORML, was a coup for Alaskans for Privacy, the quietest of the three
Anchorage-based campaigns working for approval of Proposition 5.

So the pro-5s have Willie. Which music stars do the anti-5s have for their ads?

"We got Sen. and Mrs. Frank Murkowski," No on 5 spokesman Wev Shea
deadpanned, "singing a duet."

Actually, the Murkowskis chose to speak their anti-legalization message in
their ads.

Reporter Liz Ruskin can be reached at lruskin@adn.com or 907 257-4591.

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