Media advisory: Expert available to discuss marijuana legalization in Alaska

LAWRENCE — Today, Alaska became the third U.S. state to decriminalize recreational use of marijuana. The law comes into effect following a 2014 vote in which state citizens approved legalizing use and cultivation of up to six plants at home for adults in the state, along with the right to carry up to 1 ounce in public. Smoking cannabis publicly remains punishable by up to a $100 fine.

Commercial sale of marijuana in Alaska will begin next year.

Colorado and Washington State already have similar laws allowing for recreational cannabis. Oregon likewise is slated to legalize personal use starting this July, after public approval at the polls last year.

Barney Warf, professor of geography at the University of Kansas, is available to speak to reporters about the spread of marijuana legalization in the U.S. Warf has researched the spread of cannabis over several millennia, mapping the long “but largely overlooked” historical geography of hemp and its psychoactive counterpart.

“Alaska is generally a conservative state, but many libertarians and even some Republicans support liberalization,” Warf said. “As with Colorado, Washington and Oregon, legalization in Alaska will reduce crime rates and raise revenues. My research on the history of cannabis illustrates that for most of human history it was legal, even promoted by governments. The illegal status of cannabis in the U.S. since 1937 is an historical aberration — Alaska’s recent move is a return to the historical norm.”

The KU investigator published the paper “High Points: An Historical History of Cannabis” in the peer-reviewed journal Geographical Review last September.

To schedule an interview with Warf, contact Brendan M. Lynch at 785-864-8855 or Brendan@ku.edu