BALLOT MEASURE 2 WOULD ALLOW LEGAL ACCESS TO VALUABLE HERBAL MEDICINE

Fifty-nine percent of Alaska voters supported legal medical marijuana
in 1998. They wanted people with cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis and
other debilitating illnesses to have safe, legal access to this
valuable herbal medicine.

The Alaska Legislature did not follow the electorate's will. It
established marijuana possession limits for medical patients lower
than those set for Alaska adults generally by the Ravin decision. It
also established an empty system of state "approval," demanding
patients and caregivers give up their Fifth Amendment rights by
requiring them to register with the state, admitting in writing that
they are breaking a federal law. Alaska patients are required to grow
their own (very difficult), buy it on the black market, or receive it
as a gift. Under the current system, each of these involves an illegal
act. There is no legal source of marijuana. The promise and intent of
the medical marijuana initiative was essentially gutted.

Ballot Measure 2 would fix this, allowing easier, safer access of
medical marijuana for Alaskans undergoing the racking nausea of
chemotherapy or painful muscle spasms of multiple sclerosis, and
perhaps restoring the promises of the 1998 medical marijuana initiative.

James P. Welch

Eagle River