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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Alaska: Meth-Marijuana bill becomes law
Anne Sutton, Associated Press Anchorage Daily News
Friday 02 Jun 2006 JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Possessing small amounts of marijuana, even in the privacy of the home, is illegal in Alaska - at least for now. Gov. Frank Murkowski on Friday signed a bill recriminalizing pot possession. The law will be challenged in court, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska, leading to a likely judicial review of Alaska's marijuana laws. Another provision of the bill, which is not in dispute, would make it tougher to buy ingredients used in making methamphetamine. In a press release, Murkowski said the state's current marijuana laws send the wrong message to Alaska's youth. "We believe House Bill 149 will allow the state to successfully defend the outlawing of today's stronger and more dangerous marijuana in the courts." The governor is seeking to overturn the 30-year-old landmark Alaska Supreme Court decision that legalized the use of small amounts of marijuana. While the court then ruled that the right to privacy was far more important than any harm that could result from use of the drug, Murkowski argues marijuana is a far more potent and dangerous drug than it was in the 1970s. The ACLU of Alaska said it would file for immediate injunctive relief in Superior Court in Juneau on Monday. Executive director Michael MacLeod-Ball said the lawsuit also would seek a permanent injunction against the marijuana provisions of the law which he said run afoul of Alaskans' constitutional rights to privacy. Under the new law, pot possession of 4 ounces or more is a felony. Possession of less than 4 ounces but more than an ounce is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail. Less than one ounce is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail. The measure was controversial in the Legislature among privacy advocates. It also became bound up in a procedural dispute between the House and Senate until it passed in the final days of the regular legislative session. The methamphetamine provisions of the law restrict the sale of many over-the-counter medicines that are used in making the drug. The law requires a customer to sign a logbook before buying a medicine with an ephedrine base, such as Sudafed, and makes it illegal to sell those ephedrine-based drugs to anyone under the age of 16.
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