The newly appointed Marijuana Control Board’s first meeting ran nearly six meandering hours as its members settled into their new roles, but it produced a list of four proposed changes to Alaska’s marijuana laws.
The board, by unanimous vote, signed off on a wish list of statutory changes it wants the Alaska Legislature to change in last year’s ballot measure that legalized commercial marijuana. The board met in Fairbanks.
The four issues include allowing cannabis clubs, updating the criminal law, clarifying the difference between a personal grow and an illegal operation, and giving villages the ability to opt out of commercial marijuana sales.
During the campaign, sponsors said communities and villages that didn’t want commercial marijuana sales could opt out, but the language used in the initiative is proving to be a problem.
The Legislature attempted to grapple with the issue of marijuana sales in rural areas. One proposal would have banned all commercial marijuana activities outside of organized municipalities, but the legislators ultimately took no action on the issue.
Much of the public testimony the board received at the meeting was on the desire for the state to allow businesses where people can use marijuana.
The issue of cannabis clubs has been contentious in the Legislature. Some proposed laws issued a blanket ban, while others offered some leeway for them to be set up.
The board’s position was that it wanted the authority to offer such licenses.
The other two issues have already been the source of much discussion in the Legislature and have to deal with how marijuana is treated in the criminal laws. Marijuana continues to be treated as a controlled substance, but there were strong efforts to move it to the list of regulated substances.
The other issue the board considered is setting a threshold between what constitutes a personal in-home grow and what constitutes an unlicensed commercial grow. The initiative allows people to have up to six marijuana plants. The unsettled question is what limit, if any, there should be if multiple people live in the same home.
See Full Story at News Miner
