Alaska's pot law invalid, lawyer claims [View All]

[Judi Lynn]

Alaska's pot law invalid, lawyer claims
CONSTITUTION: Supreme Court ruling trumps 1990 ban, he argues.


The Associated Press

(Published: July 21, 2003)
FAIRBANKS -- The Alaska Court of Appeals is considering a case that could set precedent in the 1975 Alaska Supreme Court ruling protecting marijuana possession for personal use in the home.

A lawyer for a North Pole man convicted in 2001 of possessing marijuana in his home has appealed the conviction based on a claim that a nearly three-decade-old Alaska Supreme Court decision declaring personal pot possession a state constitutional right is still the law.

The Court of Appeals' decision will represent the first time a precedent-setting court decides whether the Supreme Court ruling still protects marijuana possession for personal use in the home despite a 1990 voter initiative that criminalized possession of any amount of the drug in any location, said Bill Satterberg, the defense attorney who submitted the appeal.

Satterberg's argument is based on the assertion that voters did not have authority to cancel a state constitutional right when they passed the initiative, making the Supreme Court's decision still valid. The case before the Alaska Court of Appeals, Satterberg said, could produce the decision that clarifies the issue. (snip/...)

http://www.adn.com/alaska/story/3498651p-3529892c.html