MARIJUANA IS FREEDOM ISSUE

The big concern to all of us is public safety and safe streets. The
marijuana initiative clearly covers public safety. Most testing for
marijuana nowadays is directed toward inert cannabis, meaning you are
tested on what you did last week, not what is affecting you now (similar to
being arrested for driving to work because you were drunk last night).

Restitution is not mandated, a study is mandated. There will be an advisory
panel to study the "feasibility and methods" of making restitution.

Alcohol in the state of Alaska is legal at 21, cigarettes are legal at 19,
and marijuana will be legal at 18. There has in the history of the world
been no proven case in which someone has died from marijuana use. People
who can vote, fight for their country and be sent to prison should indeed
have the right to smoke a substance that does not kill. Making a substance
legal and regulated does not give kids more access to it. Let us educate
our children what not to do, still giving them room to make wrong choices
without the black market risks.

Keep in mind when you vote this November 7 on Proposition 5 that all we
Alaskans want is our freedom, our right to privacy and our right to life,
liberty and pursuit of happiness.

- -- Scot Dunnachie

Anchorage