Alaskans vote to legalize marijuana

Here&#x27;s an interesting piece of the Alaska marijuana legal status. We just voted to legalize recreational marijuana use, which includes growing and selling marijuana. I&#x27;m happy to see it pass because possession has been legal here for a long time, but sales and distribution has not. That&#x27;s a murky legal situation, which I&#x27;m happy to see cleared up.<p>But last night an article ran in our local paper stating that the Coast Guard will continue to enforce federal marijuana regulations [0]. In Alaska, that&#x27;s a huge asterisk next to legalization. You can&#x27;t carry marijuana on a boat, which includes the ferries in southeast and throughout the Gulf of Alaska. That also impacts all of the villages throughout the state whose main access is by river. And finally, transporting marijuana by air is against federal regulations as well. That means marijuana is essentially legalized on the road system of Alaska, which leaves much of the state in another legal limbo.<p>I look forward to the day where the entire country has a more reasonable approach to marijuana regulation.<p>[0] <a href="http://juneauempire.com/local/2014-11-03/smoke-water#.VFpFQTR4pcQ" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;juneauempire.com&#x2F;local&#x2F;2014-11-03&#x2F;smoke-water#.VFpFQT...</a>

I still find it very strange that California wasn&#x27;t one of the first states to legalize marijuana. Now there are three states ahead.<p>EDIT: Looking at the results, these counties that voted &#x27;No&#x27; surprised me<p>Los Angeles County (Los Angeles, Long Beach, Glendale, Santa Clarita, Pomona, Palmdale, Pasadena, Torrance, Inglewood, Burbank, Carson, Santa Monica etc.)<p>Santa Clara County (San Jose, Santa Clara, Cupertino, Gilroy, Palo Alto)<p>Riverside County (Riverside, Moreno Valley, Corona, Palm Springs)<p>Orange County (Santa Ana, Anaheim, Irvine, Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach)

DC and Oregon too. I think DC in particular will be interesting because Congress has power over DC it does not have with states. Could be the opening for a national debate (or the newly elected Congress could simply crush it).

This is very interesting considering Alaska has some strict alcohol laws. There are many areas that are completely dry, and alcohol is very expensive (black market). It&#x27;s generally this way due to crime and abuse.<p>Will these areas kneejerk the same restrictions with marijuana, or will they wait to see how the community reacts?<p>&#x2F;serious off<p>It&#x27;s illegal to give a moose alcohol in Fairbanks: <a href="http://www.legalsource360.com/index.php/strange-laws-in-alaska-438/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.legalsource360.com&#x2F;index.php&#x2F;strange-laws-in-alas...</a> Hope they&#x27;re not left out, again.

An interesting but perhaps meaningless correlation: The areas legalizing marijuana first are all predominantly cold, mountainous states.

I&#x27;m ready for Texas to follow suite. You think corn, wheat, cotton, cows, and oil are profitable? Wait till the congressmen and farmers understand how valuable MJ is as a cash crop, I predict legalization even in our red state within a decade.

I can&#x27;t help but to wonder if the tobacco lobby is somehow involved. For decades society fought against smoking and has largely won. So, what happened to all of those tobacco crops? I wonder if that industry is behind the legalize movement so they can shift their production to another crop.<p>Interesting historical fact is that initial tensions over marijuana came about because slaves, and later Mexican labourers were frequent users. White plantation owners (tobacco farmers) took issue with their practices. So, at least in part the banning of marijuana can be partially attributed to racism.

The Liberal Canadian government of the 90s toyed with the idea of marijuana decriminalization, but the opposing argument that was always raised was that the Americans would be so staunchly against it.<p>Back in the 90s I would not have expected all other &quot;Cascadian&quot; states would legalize marijuana before British Columbia.

Ah, this reminds me of this priceless video of a journalist who quits live on air to dedicate all her energy towards this end.<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBPsbgKeIFM" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=wBPsbgKeIFM</a><p>Hopefully all her energy was enough.

Does this MJ legalization apply to the native Alaskan areas where alcohol possession is illegal?

At the time of this comment there are 96 comments with only 6 of them about Alaska. I find that to be an interesting commentary on HN commentaries. ;-)

A lot of what can be said has already been said. However, I would like to share a piece of joy- I&#x27;m in one of the pictures in this article. It feels great.

I look forward to the day they have a vote on PEDs.

Gosh we&#x27;re so far from it in France

I live in Alaska as a high school teacher.<p>We lead the nation in welfare, alcohol abuse and fetal alcohol effects, suicide, sexually transmitted disease, credit card debt, number of women murdered, and domestic abuse.<p>Now we are all going to be high as a kite, too.<p>This does not make my job any easier.