Pot Possession 'Recriminalized' in Alaska

Jacob Sullum | June 5, 2006

On Friday Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski signed a bill that ostensibly recriminalizes marijuana possession in the Land of the Midnight Sun. I say "ostensibly" because the Alaska Supreme Court ruled in 1975 that the state constitution's privacy clause protects the possession of marijuana for personal use in the home, and it rejected a 1990 ballot initiative that also purported to override that ruling. The ACLU is challenging the new law in court, where the state will argue that marijuana is so much more dangerous that it used to be, than we used to think, or both that the 1975 ruling should be reversed.

Comments

|6.5.06 @ 5:39PM|#

Up yours, Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski.


- The Widow White

|6.5.06 @ 5:48PM|#

Brilliant.

While some of us are trying to move forward, we still have these jackasses trying to pull us back to the ignorance of the early twentieth century.

Fuck you, "Governor".

|6.5.06 @ 5:52PM|#

I've got a bad feeling that the ACLU is going to lose this one. In fact, I'm willing to bet on it.

Warren|6.5.06 @ 5:53PM|#

Awwww FUCK, looks like I'm going to have to start drinking again

|6.5.06 @ 6:00PM|#

Marijuana doesn't freak people out--hippies freak people out.

|6.5.06 @ 6:22PM|#

When marijuana is criminalized, only criminals will have marijuana.

You can have my joint when you pry it from my cold bogarting fingers.

Oh, what a time to be an Alaskan bumpersticker writer.

Almost forgot my favorite: Impeach the Polack.

|6.5.06 @ 6:32PM|#

Fuck you Frank Murkowski.

Your message to our kids is more corrosive than the effects of any thing grown in the ground: Fear freedom children!! Take your prozac and your ambien and your effexor and your ritalin and shut-up!!

Rotten bastard.

Michael Smith for President:

http://smithforpresident.com/

|6.5.06 @ 6:32PM|#

Alright, somebody got that...

I might add that's it better to have a joint and not need one than to need a joint and not have one.

|6.5.06 @ 6:50PM|#

Murkowski was a rotten Senator, and after he was elected Governor, he gave his seat to his daughter, a move that made many observers feel slightly queasy, to say the least.

|6.5.06 @ 7:09PM|#

You'd think there'd be enough room up in Alaska so that nobody would really care if you went out and tooted a little herb now and then. What are they afraid of, that maybe the bears are going to take up the habit too?

|6.5.06 @ 8:15PM|#

Is Frank Murkowski Barbara Murkowski in drag? Wondering.

Hey, when you are trying to fight an addiction, you have relapses.

Is there a methadone for addiction to the war on drugs?

Repeat after me, Frank/Barbara: I'm Frank/Barbara Murkowski and I'm a transvestite addicted to the war on drugs.
(applause)

b-psycho|6.5.06 @ 8:32PM|#

Doug: "What are they afraid of, that maybe the bears are going to take up the habit too?"

Wouldn't be surprised if that point came up on Colbert Report...

Jason S.|6.5.06 @ 8:43PM|#

What are they afraid of, that maybe the bears are going to take up the habit too?

Seriously, would you want the bears to get the munchies?

|6.5.06 @ 8:52PM|#

Number6,
I am (thankfully) not so sure of that. The Justices that are sitting on the Alaska Supreme Court today are the same ones who decided to uphold Ravin v. State in 2003. Hard to see where they would decide that one criminalization bill was unconstitutional and another not. Well, here's to hopin'.

Erika|6.5.06 @ 8:58PM|#

Aren't Alaskans supposed to be libertarian or something? Then there's Ted Stevens' attempt to crack down on indecency on television. You'd think he was trying to run for president or something.

|6.5.06 @ 9:09PM|#

I meant Senator Barbara Mikulski.
Nevermind.
(She is a cutie.)

|6.5.06 @ 9:52PM|#

I told you so. Never underestimate the sheer will of government to regulate. Ever.

|6.5.06 @ 10:14PM|#

Murkowski was a rotten Senator, and after he was elected Governor, he gave his seat to his daughter, a move that made many observers feel slightly queasy, to say the least.

True, but she did win an election in 2004. Which is sad.

|6.6.06 @ 2:18AM|#

And this from a "small-government" "free-market" Republican. Had to mention it sense I pile so much criticism on the Dems most of the time...

|6.6.06 @ 9:31AM|#

Good to see the Alaskins have finally come to their senses.

|6.6.06 @ 9:35AM|#

I meant Senator Barbara Mikulski.
Nevermind.
(She is a cutie.)

Dammit, Ruthless, you made me look.

|6.6.06 @ 9:48AM|#

Evidently the pot they smoke in Alaska is much stronger than anything the lower states can get. How else can you explain their reasoning for bridges to nowhere and highways named after themselves? Now maybe they will sober up and give us all our money back. Don't hold your bong hit to long waiting for that to happen.

If millions of people who are not even supposed to be in the country get to break the law, if millions of gays and lezs can get their issue heard on marriage why can't the working class pot smokers in this country get any representation. If they will give more credit and thought to someone not even american breaking our laws surely they can cut some slack to us native law breakers. I have to think their are more pot smokers than illegal aliens and seeing how we actually get to vote legally why aren't they worried about the pot smokers vote? Because neither side has any issue with it the way it stand because of the money is the only thing I can think of.

|6.6.06 @ 5:28PM|#

I have to think their are more pot smokers than illegal aliens and seeing how we actually get to vote legally why aren't they worried about the pot smokers vote?

Millions of people were marching in the major U.S. cities a few weeks ago supporting immigrant rights. Stoners were sitting in their basements watching the room spin, absorbed in their bodily sensations.

|6.6.06 @ 5:29PM|#

(Just joking.)

|6.6.06 @ 5:49PM|#

Is there more pork for states that do not have medical marijuana laws, or outright non-criminalization? I thought Alaska was doing OK with pork, but I suppose there's never enough to go around for fatcat politicos.