Irwin Ravin, 70, died Sunday night at Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage after suffering a heart attack, according to Dean Irwin, his son, Monday.
From the beginning, Ravin's civil disobedience was also a prong in a national battle to legalize the drug. The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws was pushing for reform state by state. Another Alaskan -- Robert Wagstaff -- was the group's representative in the Last Frontier. Ravin and Wagstaff happened to be law partners who both enjoyed smoking and wanted to upend the state's marijuana laws.
During a routine traffic stop, Ravin set himself up to be arrested by refusing to sign the citation, knowing he had marijuana in his pocket. With his own arrest, he and Wagstaff had the client and test case they needed, and NORML footed the bill to help bring in expert witnesses on Ravin's behalf.
In the decades since Ravin's 1973 arrest, Ravin v. Alaska has been the cornerstone for decisions upholding Alaskans' treasured privacy rights, including the right to possess and smoke small amounts of marijuana. In 1975, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled the state had no justification to intrude on a citizen's privacy rights within the home with respect to personal marijuana possession or usage. While the decision's interpretation and proper application has been debated for decades, Ravin effectively pushed the state's treatment of small amounts of marijuana into a legal gray area from which it may never emerge.
Today there is no criminal penalty in Alaska for possession in the home of up to one ounce of marijuana, and the state has a reputation (whether earned or not) as having a permissive legal attitude toward the drug.
Ravin moved to Fairbanks in 1967, passed the bar and began practicing law. He later moved to Homer, where he lived until his death.
Source: Alaska Dispatch
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