WARNING, HOPE FOR STATE IN ALASKA POT PROTECTION

If Californians want a glimpse of how the landscape might look should a
November ballot initiative to legalize marijuana pass, they could turn north.

They would see complication. And a cautionary lesson. And maybe hope for
those who want pot smoking legitimized.

For 35 years, it's been virtually legal in Alaska, with its fiercely
frontier mentality, to smoke marijuana at home and grow small amounts there
- - currently up to 1 ounce - just as proposed in California's Regulate,
Control and Tax Cannabis Act.

It's the most liberal pot policy in the nation, made that way under a 1975
Alaska Supreme Court ruling that said that what a person does in his home
is protected under an unusually strong privacy provision in the state's
Constitution.

The ruling affirmed that anything that isn't harmful can be done at home
without official interference, and the justices decided that cultivating
small amounts of cannabis was harmless.

The trouble is that even with this constitutional protection, marijuana is
still illegal in Alaska under federal law, just as it will be in California
even if the November initiative passes. It's even marginally illegal under
state law.

Misconceptions widespread

That means Alaska's protection for pot smokers is applied gingerly and is
often misinterpreted, officials say.

They predict the same for California.

"We've had this court ruling on the books for 35 years, and I don't think
it created Armageddon up here - but there is still a misconception in the
public regarding the law," said Megan Peters, spokeswoman for the Alaska
State Troopers. "People think they can just have it anywhere, and that's
not true."

In Alaska, Peters said, the common practice is that people can keep as much
as an ounce at home. Even though a recently passed law made possession a
low-level misdemeanor punishable by 90 days in jail, no arrests have been
made for simple private use, Peters said. The 35-year-old precedent of
privacy rights is still too strong.

Gray area outside the home

The biggest wrinkle to that precedent, however, is that under state law,
taking the drug in or out of the house is still a felony. So people do get
arrested for possession outside of their homes - more than 1,000 a year.

This all means that just as with medical marijuana - which is
state-legalized in both Alaska and California - officials have to tread
carefully. That's why Alaska's regulations are commonly called a gray area
by legal experts in and out of the state.

"Judging by our experience, the proposed law in California is not going to
solve your state's marijuana problem if it passes," Peters said.
"Initially, you're going to see a spike in arrests because people will
mistakenly think it's all legal now, anytime and anywhere in any amount,
which, of course, it won't be. You're going to have to build in a lot of
public education - and don't forget it will still be illegal federally.

"These things are never easy."

Marijuana advocates and opponents in both states have been closely watching
each other's developments.

Both sides look to Alaska

Californian advocates point to Alaska as proof that pot can be legal for
recreational use with no catastrophic consequences to society. Opponents
counter that the state has long had one of the highest substance abuse
rates in the nation.

"Alaska's been a big social laboratory for 30 years, and we've shown that
there has been no big crime surge because of marijuana use in the home,"
said Bill Parker, 65, one of the founders of Alaskans for Rational
Marijuana Policy, a group formed this month to push for full legalization
of pot.

"I think it's a great example for California."

A former state legislator and a retired deputy state prison commissioner,
Parker said he regularly smokes marijuana. But his group's argument for
stripping away the core remaining regulations against pot in Alaska goes
further than simple enjoyment.

The group - inspired in no small part by California's ballot measure and
led by about a half-dozen Republicans and Democrats, smokers and nonsmokers
- - argues that pot use is a basic privacy right. The state's 1975 pot ruling
asserted this by legal precedent, but Parker's outfit wants to codify it in
state law.

The last time Alaskans floated an initiative to legalize cannabis, in 2004,
the initiative failed, 56 percent to 44 percent. But that was the highest
"yes" vote for grass ever in the state, advocates say, and now with
California leading the way, they think an Alaskan approval is within
striking distance.

Alaska's eye on California

"Alaskans certainly don't want to be seen as just following California, but
the vote there will definitely affect what we do," said policy group member
Tim Hinterberger, a University of Alaska associate professor. "If it wins
in California, there will be momentum. If it fails, we will learn from that
- - and still try to legalize it here."

There are those, of course, who want nothing of the kind.

"If smokers stayed home and got high and stayed there, that would be OK -
but that's not reality," said Peters, the troopers' spokeswoman. "When
people are high, they aren't making the best decisions, so there have to be
limits.

"People say they want their personal freedoms, and that's great. But with
freedom comes personal responsibility."