New hemp initiative put forward

Frontiersman staff

ANCHORAGE — Backers of a new hemp legalization initiative submitted the necessary 100-plus sponsor signatures last week to the Anchorage Division of Elections.

The initiative committee is headed by Tim Hinterberger, Jerry Rohacek and Randall Patterson — two University of Alaska Anchorage professors and an Anchorage attorney.

The new initiative would end criminal penalties for marijuana use and possession and would also allow hemp farming.

Unlike the legalization initiative defeated in the November 2000 election, the new initiative does not include an amnesty provision or a panel on restitution, which are what many people feel caused the last initiative to fail.

Hinterberger, an associate professor in the biomedical

program and the Department of Biological Sciences at UAA, said in a press release distributed by Free Hemp in Alaska that he believes a more moderate attempt at cannabis reform will enjoy wide support.

"Even the opponents of last year's initiative generally agreed that responsible adults should not be punished for using marijuana in the privacy of their own homes," Hinterberger said in the release.

Rohacek, a UAA economics professor, claimed in the release that the new initiative will save taxpayers millions of dollars in law enforcement costs, speed up the judicial process and shift other millions toward the prosecution and punishment of serious crimes.

Patterson, an attorney, said in the release that the new initiative would restore Alaska's respect for privacy. He plans to put the initiative on the ballot as an all-volunteer effort. The effort is being led by Al Anders, who coordinated the last legalization initiative drive.

The initiative committee, in the release, urged anyone interested in helping in the effort to contact Free Hemp in Alaska at (907) 278-4367.