ALASKA LEGALIZED MARIJUANA FIRST

As a student and daily reader of the Collegian it deeply disturbs me
that on the front page of an issue of your paper that an (article)
would be completely false and nearly devoid of fact. And that the
writer of the (article) obviously did not research this as well as it
should have been.

The city of Anchorage, Alaska as well as the whole state of Alaska
would be the first to legalize possession and use of marijuana in
1975, a decision by the state Supreme Court. It was re-criminalized
in 1990 but recently overturned, making pot legal. On a lesser note
several other cities have de-prioritized possession of marijuana
essentially making it legal to possess. Those cities are Seattle, San
Francisco and Oakland, Calif.; Amherst, Mass.; Ann Arbor, Mich.; and
Madison, Wis., among other places.

This can all be verified here:
http://www.inorml.org/news_stories/national_news092003.htm

While Denver's law is a monumental step for marijuana advocates, it
isn't the first and shouldn't be sensationalized as such.

Sincerely,

S.J. Brooks

Junior

liberal arts

Editor's note: Denver was, in fact, the first city in the nation to
fully legalize the possession of any amount of recreational
marijuana. The city of Anchorage, Alaska did not legalize the drug.
Rather, the state of Alaska legalized possession of up to 4 ounces of
marijuana for recreational use. The decision was handed down in a
state court located in Anchorage.