Court makes marijuana legal in Alaska homes again

[align=left]Yesterday, a judge struck down part of the new Alaska law that had re-criminalized marijuana in the state, ruling that the new law conflicts with past state Supreme Court decisions that protect adults who have small amounts of marijuana in their homes.[/align]

Until last month â?? when the new Alaska law took effect â?? possession of up to four ounces of marijuana in the home had been legal in Alaska.

Unfortunately, the new law attempted to make it a crime to possess any amount of marijuana in the privacy of the home, directly contradicting a September 2004 Alaska Supreme Court decision allowing adults aged 21 and older to use and possess up to four ounces of marijuana in the privacy of their homes. The MPP grants program funded this litigation.

Yesterday's ruling â?? which you can read about in this Associated Press article â?? means that police will not be able to search someone's home for marijuana unless they have probable cause to believe that the home contains more than one ounce of marijuana. (The court limited its decision yesterday to amounts under one ounce â?? not four ounces â?? saying that the Alaska Civil Liberties Union, which brought the case, argued that the issue at hand was the state legislature's power to regulate "small amounts" of marijuana.)

The bad law enacted last month was the result of an aggressive lobbying campaign by Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski (R), who went on a personal crusade to re-criminalize marijuana in the state. Political observers originally expected Murkowski's bill to pass within weeks of its introduction in early 2005, but many months of lobbying and grassroots organizing by MPP, the Alaska Civil Liberties Union, and Alaskans for Marijuana Regulation and Control succeeded in blocking the bill for one-and-a-half years.

However, the governor and state attorney general's intense lobbying campaign, which included personal phone calls to waffling legislators, ultimately tilted the vote; the bill passed in May and was signed into law on June 2.

(To help MPP recoup some of the costs of the $60,000 it spent lobbying in Alaska this year, please donate here.)

Yesterday's court ruling is a clear and direct rejection of Gov. Murkowski's prohibitionist zealotry â?? and a victory for all Alaskans.

Sincerely,

Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.

P.S. Photos from MPP's recent awards gala in New York City are online here.
pisshead Reviewed by pisshead on . Court makes marijuana legal in Alaska homes again Court makes marijuana legal in Alaska homes again Yesterday, a judge struck down part of the new Alaska law that had re-criminalized marijuana in the state, ruling that the new law conflicts with past state Supreme Court decisions that protect adults who have small amounts of marijuana in their homes. Until last month â?? when the new Alaska law took effect â?? possession of up to four ounces of marijuana in the home had been legal in Alaska. Unfortunately, the new law attempted to Rating: 5