Arrested Development - Ex-Pats Mexico

you know that PROHIBITION DIDN'T WORK THE FIRST TIME THEY TRIED IT. Why do you think it will work now? It's nobody's business what consenting adults do among themselves. You cannot legislate morality! Lizzy[/quote]

Absolutely correct. But knowing that will never stop the self styled arbiters of morality from their pious preachin'. Cocaine, heroin and marijuana were at one time legal. And posed no problems. (except maybe, to bored rich housewives)

You guys just don't get it - This cannabis legalization is all a Republican plot to win back the Presidency :

" In Alaska it is legal both to own and grow marijuana. Alaskans can legally carry up to an ounce of marijuana for personal use. Alaskans are also allowed to grow up to 24 plants at home for personal use. If you ask around, most people will say about 80% of Alaskans smoke marijuana. This is a good example of how Alaska can be so conservative that it starts to actually become liberal. You’ve probably heard about Palin’s 90% approval ratings in Alaska. Just realize about 80% of Alaskans were stoned whenever they were polled. And the other 20% were probably drunk, or drunk and stoned."
http://alaskanexposure.wordpress.com/2008/09/07/marijuana-is-legal-in-alaska/

To be fair, the Governor previous to Palin did have some valid points when repealing the law in 2005. Statistically, the Native community has seen the most damage. It was a lower court who tossed out the first enforcement of the legislation, following the 1975 State Supreme Court ruling.

Alaska has a geographic advantage in controlling the import of hard drugs - but I wonder if that will change with the opening of the Arctic shipping lanes, expected about 2011?

Gary, you really should use a little more caution when quoting something about Alaska. The average Alaskan is not a drug user, or a habitual drunk. It might be worth noting that in every census done in Alaska, whether it is a special census, or the federal census done every ten years, it has been consistently found that 50% of Alaska’s population has been in the state less than one year.

Marijuana used to be unregulated up there, that is a lot different from it being legal. It was always illegal under federal law, but local and state agencies did not enforce the federal laws.

Because of many, many problems with it, the state tried to pass laws restricting the possession of marijuana to no more than one pound of the processed drug. That was probably because criminals were often caught with greenhouses full of the stuff, and they had a good chance of evading prosecution by claiming it was for personal use.

They were usually successfully prosecuted for stealing thousands of Dollars worth of electricity to power the grow lights in the greenhouses though. Too often, they got off on the drug possession charges. It was kind of dismaying, they were breaking federal laws big time, but the feds would not step up and pay a penny to prosecute them in federal court.

That led to court actions by people that wanted to continue with unregulated amounts in a person’s possession. Some very potent pot is grown in Alaska, and is exported in large quantities.

There were so many problems with the marijuana trade that in the 1980s a proposition was put on the ballot by some concerned Alaskans to outlaw the possession and use of any amount of pot. It passed. If the possession of one ounce is again tolerated under state laws, it is news to me and has happened since I left Alaska.

People that advocate the legalization of drugs should live in a place where they are unregulated for a few years to find out what the consequences are. Everybody is affected by it.

Increasing shipping in arctic areas will have no affect whatever on the amount of hard drugs brought to Alaska. Those shipping routes are open already, and few, if any people live in the arctic. The Mexican drug cartels are there already. A large number of Mexican drug cartel members were arrested in Anchorage recently, and they have been arresting them up there for years now.

25 or 30 years ago, mostly central Americans were arrested for bringing large amounts of drugs to Alaska. Distance never stops them when there is money to be made.

Rex