Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell announced today that the campaign to legalize pot received enough qualified signatures and met all the other requirements necessary to be on the primary ballot.
Here’s the press release from the “Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol in Alaska,” or the CTRMLAIA for short:
Lieutenant Governor Mead Treadwell announced today that the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol in Alaska has met the constitutional and statutory requirements for its initiative to be placed on the 2014 primary ballot. According to the final report provided by the Alaska Division of Elections, the campaign qualified 36,030 signatures with just 30,169 being required.
“A bipartisan tidal wave of public support for regulating marijuana like alcohol in Alaska has pushed this initiative onto the ballot, and we will be running an aggressive campaign designed to build on that momentum,” said Taylor Bickford, a spokesperson for the campaign.
Earlier this month, a major poll was released showing that 55 percent of Alaska voters are in favor of regulating marijuana like alcohol, with just 39 percent opposing the concept.
“Marijuana prohibition has failed and the majority of Alaskans believe it is time for a more sensible approach,” said Bickford.
In summary, the proposed initiative makes possession of limited amounts of marijuana legal for adults 21 years of age or older and establishes a system in which marijuana is taxed and regulated similarly to alcohol.
More information about the campaign, including a summary and full text of the initiative, is available at www.RegulateMarijuanaInAlaska.org.
Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com
Flipping right its on the ballott and it’ll pass man. This talk about being worried and moral facric stuff is bs. Alaskans are progressive people that don’t need or want government telling them what they can and can’t do every 5 minutes. Police need to be doing real shit instead of chasing weed. Legalization has been a long time coming. There is absolutely nothing to fear. Embrace it, use it and enjoy it. My sincere gratitude to all who worked their butts off to get this up for a vote. Now is the time, our time.
I am soooo confused regarding my feelings on this initiative. I don’t think people should go to jail for pot but donr want it readily available to kids or everywhere in our community. I hope to hell they tax it high if legalized. It worries me.
Prohibition has failed to keep marijuana out of the hands of kids. 80% of high school graduates have been exposed to marijuana by the time they graduate. By regulating it you will put street dealers out of businesses and shift sales to businesses that are required to check for proof of ID.
The gateway argument has been debunked. Just because your daughter smoked marijuana before she did other drugs, does not mean marijuana caused her to do those drugs. Your daughter also probably drank alcohol before any of it – shouldn’t that be considered the real gateway drug?
Marijuana is safer (by any measure) than alcohol, which is widely used in Alaska. Marijuana is also widely used up here, and the moral fabric of our state is doing just fine.
My daughter started smoking pot in junior high. By high school, she was troubled and experimenting with various other kinds of illicit drugs and has been in and out of rehab multiple times. After high school, she got married and had a beautiful son that I am now raising because she is irresponsible and struggles with addictions. It all started with pot. For many, it is a gateway drug to other more serious and devestating drugs. I hope that the people will vote this measure down. Making pot more available will simply ruin more lives, make our roads unsafe and add to the deteriorating quality of our society. Tjis initiatiive is just wrong. Everuything I read about legalization of pot in Denver is bad. I think people there already realize their mistake. Let’s not make a mistake here in Alaska.
THIS INITIATIVE WILL DESTROY THE MORAL FABRIC OF OUR STATE IF PASSED.
This initiative will probably pass. Let’s hope that our state officials set up appropriate regulatory and tax systems in case it passes. I hear that Colorado’s experience is problematic.