- Alaska is already a pothead's paradise, and the state could move quickly to bring order to its ambiguous marijuana law. Cannabis has been effectively legal in Alaska since 1975, when the state supreme court, drawing on the unique privacy protections of the Alaska constitution, declared that authorities can't prohibit modest amounts of marijuana in the home of state residents.
That gave Alaskans the right to have up to four ounces – and 24 plants – in their homes. Following a failed bid to fully legalize pot at the ballot box in 2004 (the measure fell 56-44), the state legislature attempted to enforce prohibition, outlawing all weed in 2006. But citing the 1975 precedent, a judge later ruled the home exemption must be respected, though she sought to limit legal possession to a single ounce.
Totally did not know this.
I sincerely hope that this conversation moves into this realm very soon. There are a lot more reasons to get rid of prohibitory weed laws than simply "people seem to like it now!" Weed laws directly influence the ability of our legal system to penalize people for being poor, black or latino. This should be reason enough to legalize something a lot of people in America have tried at least once. (That source is 2008, so who knows how many more people would admit it now?)
And even if you don't care that the system is set up to seemingly punish people of low socio-economic status and really do think that people who smoke pot are all layabout hippie losers contributing nothing (which is flagrantly incorrect but whatever), there's STILL good reason to support legalization. Consider the delicious tax revenue the government could obtain by making people do it their way instead of risky black market methods. It worked with alcohol - some people still see it as a vice but no one in their right minds will be legislating against it, because it brings in money and we've tried that before. And we are currently trying to undo it with marijuana. Just wait and watch the crime rates in CO and WA drop precipitously, while the government spends less money embroiled in absurd legal battles and on the cost associated with jailing low-risk drug offenders for years. There are so many logical reasons to do this beyond simply "people like it so what's the problem!" There's no good angle to oppose it at this point.
Great points, both of you, and yes -- legalization of medical in Colorado/Cali has exposed a bit of "soft statistics" that was going on with crime rates. It's very clear that those numbers really can't be trusted at all when they can be so casually inflated by silly marijuana arrests.