LEMAN TARGETS MARIJUANA LAW

JUNEAU -- A Republican lawmaker wants to roll back large parts of the
medical marijuana initiative approved by Alaska voters last year.

The measure shields people from prosecution for growing, possessing or
using marijuana to treat a short list of ailments including AIDS,
cancer, chronic pain, nausea and muscle spasms. Nearly 60 percent of
the voters backed the measure.

Sen. Loren Leman's bill would require medical marijuana users to
register with the state. And it would allow law enforcement officers
greater access to that list. Under the initiative, registering with
the state is optional and there are tight controls on who can look at
the list.

Leman, R-Anchorage, wants many other changes to the law, including
tighter restrictions on how doctors can recommend medical pot. He
wants limits on what ailments qualify and where patients can smoke the
weed for relief.

"We don't want to be opening this up to anybody who is farming
marijuana and abusing our drug laws," Leman said Friday. Like other
opponents, Leman saw the ballot measure as a thinly veiled attempt to
legalize recreational marijuana use.

The medical marijuana law took effect on Thursday, and supporters
accused Leman of trying to gut the measure before the public has a
chance to see how it works.

"He's not hiding his motives," said David Finkelstein, treasurer of
Alaskans for Medical Rights, the group that pushed the initiative.
"He'd like to repeal it."

The Alaska Constitution bars the Legislature from repealing a
citizens' initiative for the first two years after it takes effect.
But lawmakers can amend initiatives.

"We are walking along that fine line," Leman admitted. "I'm doing it
with the cooperation of the Department of Law, the Department of
Public Safety and police departments around the state. They are all
concerned about what this could do to thwart their ability to enforce
the drug laws in the state of Alaska."

Democratic Minority Leader Johnny Ellis of Anchorage said Leman was
apparently lying in wait for the law to go into effect.

"It appears on its face to be a wholesale rollback of the citizens'
initiative," Ellis said. "The timing shocks me. He had to be working
on this piece of legislation before the initiative went into effect."

Leman's bill would require doctors to submit a signed statement
stating grounds for their conclusions that "there is no other legal
treatment that can be tolerated by the patient that is as effective in
alleviating the debilitating medical condition."

Finkelstein contends that such a requirement would make it nearly
impossible for doctors to recommend marijuana -- because many
stronger drugs such as morphine are legal and could be tolerated by
patients, even though they have dangerous side effects.

The bill also would require patients to register with the state, even
though the registry system will not be in place until June. Under the
measure passed by voters, a doctor's decision to recommend marijuana
would provide a legal defense even if the user didn't register.

Leman's proposal would also limit the qualified medical conditions
listed in the law to cancer, glaucoma and AIDS, along with nausea and
pain associated with those diseases. Gone would be the law's
authority to treat pain, nausea, seizures and muscle spasms caused by
other conditions. The Department of Health and Social Services could
add other qualified illnesses later.

Although Leman said he was cooperating with state agencies on his
rewrite of the law, officials in the Department of Law and the
Department of Health and Social Services say the proposal has a long
way to go.

"I think it's safe to say that we'll have some concerns about the way
this bill has been drafted," said Elmer Lindstrom, a special assistant
to Health and Social Services Commissioner Karen Perdue. Leman's
proposal doesn't sound much like one discussed between his department
and the Department of Law, Lindstrom added.