Alaska Supreme Court Hears Marijuana Possession Case
A two-year legal battle over the constitutionality of an Alaskan law recriminalizing possession of cannabis in one’s own home was heard by the Alaska Supreme Court today.
The measure, passed by the Alaska Legislature in April of 2006, sought to end the decriminalization of marijuana resulting from a 1975 Alaska Supreme Court ruling in Ravin v State, which held that personal ingestion and possession of up to four ounces of cannabis in one’s own home fell under the Alaska constitution’s protection of the right to privacy. The Alaska ACLU successfully sued to have the law overturned by the Alaska Superior Court, which upheld Ravin.
In that decision, Alaska Superior Court judge Patricia Collins ruled that the Alaska legislature lacks the authority to override the Supreme Court's 1975 decision. "The Alaska Supreme Court has repeatedly and consistently characterized the Ravin decision as announcing a constitutional limitation of the government's authority to enact legislation prohibiting the possession of marijuana in the privacy of one’s home," she determined. "That decision is the law until and unless the Supreme Court takes contrary action."
Collin's ruling struck down sections of the new law criminalizing the possession of one ounce or less of cannabis, but leaves in place measures prohibiting the possession of greater amounts. Under the 2006 law, possession of one to four ounces of marijuana is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.
"The Alaska Court of Appeals has held that the legislature has the power to set reasonable limits on the amount of marijuana that people can possess for personal use in their homes and that such regulation does not conflict with Ravin," Collins determined.
In 2004, the Alaska Supreme Court rejected a petition by the attorney general’s office to reconsider a September 2003 Court of Appeals decision that the possession of marijuana by adults within the home is constitutionally protected activity.
Governor Frank Murkowski (R), who strongly advocated for the new law, has argued that Ravin should no longer apply in Alaska because cannabis may pose greater health and safety risks today than it did in 1975.
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