Decided on May 27, 1975, the Court held that the Alaska Constitution's right to privacy protects an adult's ability to use and possess a small amount of marijuana in the home for personal use.
[2] It was brought about by Irwin Ravin, an attorney who caused his own arrest in Anchorage for refusing to sign a traffic ticket while in possession of marijuana in order to challenge the existing law.
[3]The court ruled:[4] ... we conclude that no adequate justification for the state's intrusion into the citizen's right to privacy by its prohibition of possession of marijuana by an adult for personal consumption in the home has been shown.
The privacy of the individual's home cannot be breached absent a persuasive showing of a close and substantial relationship of the intrusion to a legitimate governmental interest.
The state must demonstrate a need based on proof that the public health or welfare will in fact suffer if the controls are not applied.Alaskan voters approved a ballot initiative recriminalizing marijuana possession in 1990, but in Noy v. State, the Alaska Court of Appeals held that ballot initiatives are subject to the same constitutional limitations as legislative enactments, and thus the portion of the amended statutes criminalizing possession of less than four ounces of marijuana in the home was unconstitutional.