ALASKANS WILL VOTE ON LEGAL MARIJUANA

State's Libertarian Style May Make It Close

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- "Vote Yes Prop 5," proclaims the large yellow mural
painted on the side of a building here, complete with a large cannabis leaf.

A poster on the window offers a quote from Ronald Reagan, though he
certainly has not endorsed this particular measure: "Government exists to
protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is
in deciding to protect us from ourselves."

And just inside the door here at the headquarters of Free Hemp in Alaska
are more than a dozen versions of pamphlets offering reasons for Alaskans
to support the broadest marijuana legalization initiative ever to appear on
a state ballot.

One pamphlet proclaims that marijuana is a far safer drug than alcohol.
Another says that passage of the measure would "free police resources to
fight real crime." And a third, "Marijuana and the Bible," has drawings of
Jesus Christ and observes: "Nowhere in the Bible does it forbid people to
grow, use or smoke cannabis hemp."

Here, in a state that many Alaskans like to describe as the most
libertarian in the nation, voters are being asked in the Nov. 7 election to
say "yes" to marijuana in a single, sweeping vote that would not only
legalize consumption of the drug for anyone age 18 and over but also create
automatic amnesty for anyone convicted of marijuana-related charges and
even require the state to consider restitution for such people.

Supporters of Proposition 5 are visible all over Anchorage. They gathered
signatures from more than 41,000 registered voters to get the measure on
the ballot, more than twice the needed number and a figure that represents
nearly 10 percent of all voters in the state.

And if marijuana users are derided by drug critics as laid-back and
apathetic, the frenetic energy that many are bringing to the cause belies
that image.

"It's a travesty that we lock people up and make criminals of them for
personal use of marijuana," said James Garhart, a 51-year-old messenger who
says he has used marijuana on a "semi-daily" basis for years.

Some opponents of the measure fear that the measure will pass because, they
say, supporters are running a campaign that appeals to Alaskans'
libertarian, leave-me-alone instincts and that often refrains from using
the word "marijuana." The leading organizations for the measure have such
names as "Free Hemp in Alaska" and "Hemp 2000." Hemp is a different variety
of the plant species Cannibis sativa that has many industrial uses and a
tiny fraction of the psychoactive properties of marijuana.

"I'm concerned that the word is not getting out about what this measure
would do," said Wev Shea, the U.S. attorney here during the Bush
administration and now a lawyer in private practice, who is a leading
critic of the measure.

The measure certainly has plenty of prominent critics, including Gov. Tony
Knowles, a Democrat who calls it "foolish and dangerous," and Chief Duane
Udland of the Anchorage police, who has warned that the measure could
create a "drug culture" that would attract wayward elements from all over
the world.

Many state leaders remain confident that there is no way the measure will
pass, with many citing the recent Alaska Poll, a periodic statewide survey
conducted by David Dittman, a prominent pollster here.

Of 518 residents surveyed in the last 10 days of September, 42 percent said
they were "strongly against" the measure and 19 percent "generally
against," while 35 percent indicated they were supporting it.

Alaskans voted two years ago to legalize the medicinal use of marijuana,
and Dittman said there might be strong support for decriminalizing the drug
in some fashion because the state electorate did indeed have libertarian
tendencies.

"There's certainly an element of that in the Alaskan mentality, but it does
not extend to amnesty, to restitution, to the idea that marijuana would all
of a sudden be legal for teen-agers," Dittman said. "I think that's where
they went too far."

Beginning in 1975, under a right-to-privacy ruling by the Alaska State
Supreme Court, residents were allowed to possess small amounts of
marijuana; in 1990, voters decided to recriminalize the drug.

Still, private use of marijuana is rarely prosecuted here and, in
interviews on the streets, it is abundantly clear that many Alaskans find
that situation acceptable.

But that hardly means the measure will pass. For one thing, many voters
seemed concerned that it would legalize the drug for people as young as 18.
Alaskans must be 19 to buy cigarettes and 21 to buy liquor.

Others said the amnesty was simply too broad or expressed fears, as one man
put it, that passage of the measure would "attract a lot of the deadwood to
move up to Alaska, get their check and get stoned."

Oil revenues enable the state to send a check each year to everybody who
lives here; this year's payment from the so-called Permanent Fund amounts
to nearly $2,000.

At the busy offices of Free Hemp in Alaska, workers answer phones and hand
out brochures. People, some curious and some committed, wander in for
information. A big sign reads: "Absolutely! No smoking anywhere, anything
in the building."

Sil DeChellis, the treasurer of Free Hemp, explained that he and many other
campaign workers detest cigarette smoke.

Next door, at the Cafe Pax, a coffee shop where painted cannabis leaves are
part of the decor, the chairman of Free Hemp, Al Anders, ticked off the
ways he thought life in Alaska would improve if Proposition 5 passes.

"We'll save money on law enforcement costs, and the police can fight real
crime," said Anders.

"We'll have a stronger economy, and some increases in tourism," continued
Anders, who said he did not like to smoke marijuana because it aggravated
his bronchitis. ("I prefer it in my chili," he said.)

And, he added: "There may be more government revenue, because people will
figure out how to tax it."