cannabisnews.com: Med Marijuana: Why It's Not a Big Issue for Alaska
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Med Marijuana: Why It's Not a Big Issue for Alaska
Posted by CN Staff on May 22, 2011 at 06:38:07 PT
By Jeff Richardson, Fairbanks Daily News Miner 
Source: Daily News-Miner
Fairbanks -- A growing federal crackdown on medical marijuana has unfolded around the country in recent months, but in Alaska the vibe around the issue remains decidedly mellow.The Obama administration vowed in 2009 to make medical marijuana oversight a low priority, and raids on pot dispensaries have indeed been down dramatically during the last two years. But federal prosecutors have recently signaled intentions to crack down, issuing memos that indicate they’re tired of perceived abuse of medical marijuana.
It’s caused politicians and law enforcement officials across the country to re-examine their approach to medical pot, which has been legalized in Alaska, 13 other states and Washington, D.C., mostly through voter initiatives.But the issue creates little buzz in Alaska more than a dozen years after 58 percent of the state’s voters in 1998 made Alaska one of the first states to sanction marijuana for medical use. Why isn’t Alaska the site of protests and federal crackdowns?That’s likely because of the way Alaska’s medical marijuana law was written. Unlike other states, where systems have been set up to sell medical pot, there isn’t a mechanism in Alaska for legally acquiring the drug.Dispensaries, which have been the target of federal raids in other states, don’t exist in Alaska, and the Legislature has shown no interest in creating a system for setting them up.Anchorage-based U.S. Attorney Karen Loeffler said she’s never dealt with a medical marijuana case in Alaska since taking the job two years ago. Since the distribution of pot isn’t part of the law approved by voters, she doesn’t expect that to change.“Alaska has never legalized the sale of marijuana, so it’s different than other states,” she said. A Low-Key Issue  The prohibition on pot sales — even for approved uses — keeps Alaska out of the conflict but puts local medical marijuana users in an awkward situation.State officials won’t explicitly say so, but obtaining marijuana for medical purposes in Alaska almost always needs to start with an illicit transaction. There’s no approved method in Alaska for buying marijuana or its seeds for medical use.“(The law) doesn’t really address how you’re supposed to get it,” said Phillip Mitchell, who is in charge of the Alaska medical marijuana registry.The state doesn’t say much at all about its medical marijuana program. The subject barely appears on the state of Alaska website, with little more than a link to an application form on the Bureau of Vital Statistics page.Marijuana use is limited to just a short list of illnesses — cancer, glaucoma, HIV or AIDS — but some say it’s too difficult even for those patients to get a doctor’s recommendation for marijuana.Tracey White, the program director at the Interior AIDS Association, said marijuana helps some people overcome the extreme nausea that can be a side effect of anti-AIDS drugs. A synthetic form of THC, which supplies the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, is available, but patients say its doses aren’t as easy to regulate as the real thing.She said clients commonly ask her for referrals to doctors who will prescribe medical marijuana. White said she doesn’t know of any.“I don’t have any clients using the medical marijuana because we don’t have a specialist in the area who will write for medical marijuana,” White said.It’s a situation the state’s clinics and hospitals have been reluctant to broach. Patients aren’t allowed to possess the drug at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, and doctors there don’t recommend it. Anna Atchison, Tanana Valley Clinic spokeswoman, said there aren’t any physicians at the clinic who would endorse marijuana for patients.“We would not recognize that as being part of a traditionally prescribed treatment,” she said.Mary Ann Foland, the president-elect of the Alaska State Medical Association, said she can’t think of a single doctor in the state who recommends marijuana to patients.“I don’t know of anybody who does it,” she said.But apparently at least one physician in the state is a supporter. There are 379 patients on the state registry, and with almost no exceptions, a recommendation from an Alaska doctor is required to get on that list. The cards are valid for one year, and demand has recently surged. A few years ago, there were fewer than 200 people on the registry.“Like most programs, it goes through cycles,” Mitchell said. “I can’t pinpoint any reason why there are more now than there used to be.” Alaska and Marijuana  But while medical marijuana is approved for hundreds of Alaskans, the state’s quirky approach to pot makes the law seem redundant to some supporters.In 1975, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that a privacy clause in the state Constitution allows the possession of small amounts of marijuana in homes.A voter initiative to recriminalize pot in 1991 was struck down by the courts for the same constitutional reasons, as was a bill by the Legislature outlawing “personal use” protection in 2006.The court ruling essentially allows up to 4 ounces at home for personal use. A medical marijuana card lets patients have as much as an ounce of usable marijuana in their homes — the lowest amount allowed in any of the states that have sanctioned medicinal pot.David Finkelstein, a former Anchorage lawmaker who supported the medical marijuana ballot measure, said that fact probably dampens the need many people feel to become registered. He said the process is simply too much of a hassle in a state that already offers limited protection for marijuana users.“To some degree, you’ve drawn attention to yourself,” Finkelstein said. “People can say, ‘There’s a house with marijuana in it.’ There still is a federal law against it.”Sen. Johnny Ellis, an Anchorage Democrat who has spent most of his 24-year legislative career on Health and Social Service committees, said Alaska’s independent and libertarian tendencies also work to make medical marijuana “a quiet non-issue” in the state.“There haven’t been any big controversies at all,” he said.Finkelstein now splits his time between Alaska and Arizona, where he moved to be closer to treatment after he was diagnosed with cancer.Finkelstein chuckles at the irony of his current condition. After years of speaking on behalf of medical marijuana, he’s suddenly a candidate to use it. He said his prognosis is good but the drug “just doesn’t do much for me.”“Everyone is different,” he said. “It isn’t something that helps everyone, but the ones that it does help, it really works for.”Source: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (AK)Author: Jeff Richardson, Fairbanks Daily News Miner Published: May 22, 2011Copyright: 2011 Fairbanks Publishing Company, Inc.Contact: letters newsminer.comWebsite: http://www.newsminer.com/ URL: http://drugsense.org/url/GeA7PVswCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml 
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Comment #16 posted by josephlacerenza on May 24, 2011 at 11:23:37 PT
O.T Poll Bozeman Daily Chronicle
Would you support a petition to repeal SB423?
http://tinyurl.com/42x38u7
Poll, Bozeman Daily Chronicle
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #15 posted by FoM on May 24, 2011 at 11:08:32 PT
BGreen
I agree with you too.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #14 posted by BGreen on May 24, 2011 at 10:45:57 PT
The Prison Industrial Complex
The power derived from the prison industrial complex and related enforcement groups is like any addiction. Law enforcement and its ilk will give up ANYTHING and EVERYTHING else in order to feed their addiction no matter what the cost or consequences.The Reverend Bud Green
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #13 posted by FoM on May 24, 2011 at 09:16:21 PT
dongenero
I agree with you. 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #12 posted by dongenero on May 24, 2011 at 09:07:33 PT
Private Prison Industry
I think it is the privatization of the prison industry combined with the "easy button" of tough on crime policy for politicians. Enforcement is complicit in all this as well, given smash and grab tactics of asset seizure for profit, with no need to even bring charges or justify the seizure of American's assets.What may be in all our favor, as Americans, is that such privatizations of industries like the prison industry are always more costly than being run by government. And all that additional overhead cost is still is paid by tax dollars. It's just tax dollars being wasted in subsidizing enormous private industry profit.In our benefit is the fact that the bottomless pit of prohibition to enforcement to judicial to incarceration can no longer be afforded...either financially or morally.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #11 posted by FoM on May 24, 2011 at 08:50:30 PT
Just a Comment
We now have a Republican Governor and he wants our prisons privatised. That way they can expanded and build more prisons he said. It doesn't surprise me one little bit.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #10 posted by BGreen on May 24, 2011 at 08:40:48 PT
One can only hope, dongenero
In the past this has only meant one thing ... more prisons.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #9 posted by dongenero on May 24, 2011 at 08:18:32 PT
Supreme Court stands firm on prison crowding
I hope this ruling will expand and apply additional pressure for an end to the War on American citizens for the free choice of possessing a plant.http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/judicial/2011-05-24-Supreme-court-prisons_n.htm?csp=YahooModule_News
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #8 posted by FoM on May 23, 2011 at 14:00:25 PT
BGreen
When we see and deal with disasters we realize how little we can control. It's humbling.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #7 posted by FoM on May 23, 2011 at 13:57:44 PT
Press Release From StopThe DrugWar.org
Groups Sue Feds Over Marijuana Rescheduling Petition DelayMay 23, 2011URL: http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2011/may/23/groups_sue_feds_over_marijuana_r
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Comment #6 posted by BGreen on May 23, 2011 at 11:58:37 PT
That's for sure, FoM
You know it's bad when even the TV reporters are choking back tears.We had two tornado warnings here from the same storm that hit Joplin. We had a confirmed tornado 13 miles south of us but it didn't do any damage. It is always frightening to go through, this time especially so after what it had already done to Joplin.Bud
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #5 posted by FoM on May 23, 2011 at 11:01:15 PT
BGreen
I'm glad you are OK. I feel so sorry for people who were in the direct line of these recent tornadoes.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #4 posted by BGreen on May 23, 2011 at 09:52:58 PT
We're OK
That is about an hour to the west of us. It is so incredibly horrible.Bud
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #3 posted by FoM on May 23, 2011 at 06:01:14 PT
OT: I Hope Everyone is OK
Tornadoes Rip Across Midwest; 89 Dead in Joplin, Mo.http://abcnews.go.com/US/tornadoes-rip-midwest-89-dead-joplin-mo/story?id=13662193
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #2 posted by afterburner on May 23, 2011 at 00:45:33 PT
No Great Surprise
>>>>But federal prosecutors have recently signaled intentions to crack down, issuing memos that indicate they’re tired of perceived abuse of medical marijuana. Feds are reacting to US Chamber of Commerce opposition & political activism, Koch brothers financial support for Tea Party candidates, 2010 state red gains & federal House of Representative GOP dominance, and Obama's shellacking by all of the above.'Crack'-down is a mean-spirited indirect attack on mmj patients in an attempt to avoid further perceived political losses. Confidence in Smart on Crime solutions is getting "thrown under the bus." In the 2008 primaries many gop candidates spoke out against mmj and refused to answer questions posed by mmj patients. These gop anti-heroes just turned away.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #1 posted by Sam Adams on May 22, 2011 at 15:36:24 PT
by holy decree, oops I mean 'memo'
>>>>But federal prosecutors have recently signaled intentions to crack down, issuing memos that indicate they’re tired of perceived abuse of medical marijuana. These are the modern day High Priests of our society.You sick people have angered the Gods! Prepare to feel their holy wrath.
[ Post Comment ]


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