MEDICAL MARIJUANA PUT ON BALLOT

JUNEAU--Voters will get to decide in November whether marijuana should be
legalized for certain medical uses in Alaska, the State Division of
Elections announced Tuesday. The marijuana question is the last initiative
to be certified by the Elections Division. Alaskans for Medical Rights
gathered enough signatures during a 30-day extension to put the question on
the ballot. To get on the ballot, organizers needed 24,251 registered
voters to sign the petition. The group was 1,068 shy of that number when it
turned in petitions in January. The initiative would allow patients to use
marijuana for treatment if their doctors found they had debilitating medical
conditions. The measure is the fifth initiative to make the ballot,
according to the Elections Division. Also approved were initiatives that
would allow candidates for Congress and the Legislature to take a voluntary
pledge to limit their terms of office, mandate English as Alaska's official
language, ban billboards in Alaska, and prohibit the use of snares to trap
wolves. If the Legislature enacts a law similar to any of the initiatives
this session, that question would be pulled from the ballot. An initiative
to create an education endowment failed to draw enough valid signatures, and
organizers did not take up the division's offer of an extension to gather
more.