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Tara Bass is the owner of the\u00a0Remedy Shoppe, Alaska\u2019s first\u00a0licensed adult-use dispensary\u00a0and the only such storefront in Skagway. I met her during a recent trip I took to Alaska, when the huge cruise ship I was traveling on docked in Skagway\u2019s harbor, a major cruise destination for tourists from around the world. Skagway\u2019s economy depends on out-of-towners, so many of the Remedy Shoppe\u2019s customers, like myself, come from the distant south.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, Bass told me that she thinks Remedy Shoppe<\/a> hasn\u2019t been able to tap into the tourism industry as much as the rest of the town because of Alaska\u2019s cannabis regulations, though she\u2019s optimistic for the future.<\/p>\n In 1896, the Klondike Gold Rush brought a major boom to Alaska\u2019s economy, as a hundred thousand settlers and prospectors rushed onto the freezing land in search of riches. Since then, many of Alaska\u2019s mining towns have gone through periods of boom and bust, a cycle driven by various industries promising prosperity and only occasionally delivering it. One such mining town is Skagway, tucked north of Juneau on the Gulf of Alaska, which is currently experiencing a roaring boom-time thanks to a bustling tourist industry. However, if one entrepreneur in Skagway has her way, the local economy will soon be boosted by cannabis \u2014 and a Klondike green rush will be born.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u00a0cannabis tourism<\/a>\u00a0will come when we are able to do more with it,\u201d Bass said.<\/p>\n She said advertising for cannabis businesses is currently \u201ca real issue,\u201d with regulations on \u201cthings like how fast your ad is spoken on the radio.\u201d As the first legal operator in Alaska<\/a>, Bass said, \u201cThe last thing you want is to jeopardize your license.\u201d<\/p>\n With a background in biology and psychology, Bass is not your usual stereotype of a dispensary owner and actually doesn\u2019t use cannabis herself. When I spoke with Bass, she was quick to recognize that it wasn\u2019t easy being the first to market and said this was why it was helpful to have friends.<\/p>\n \u201cThe town really helped me get up and running,\u201d Bass said. \u201cI think that is a big reason why I got the first license in the state.\u201d<\/p>\n Alaska approved recreational cannabis use in 2014, after a successful ballot initiative. The measure, which allowed those over 21 to possess up to an ounce of cannabis and six plants, went into effect on Feb. 24, 2015. Retail marijuana sales began in October 2016. In those early days, bud was scarce, but licenses were even harder to come by and many retailers weren\u2019t able to open as quickly as the Remedy Shoppe.<\/p>\n When the store first opened, all of its bud came from another retail store that was unable to open that first year, so Bass bought their harvest. On opening day, Bass said the business \u201chad 5 pounds in four jars,\u201d and now they have over 30 strains. Bass fondly remembered those 5 pounds as the first cannabis she had bought in her life.<\/p>\n On my recent visit, while Remedy Shoppe boasted Blue Dream, Durban Poison, Jack Herer, OG Kush and many other popular strains. The stand out was the\u00a0Matanuska Thunderf*ck<\/a>\u00a0(MTF). Though MTF is not a landrace strain, it is an infamous piece of Alaskan cannabis history and was at the top of my list for strains to try. With frosty white hairs and an earthy, citrus flavor, it definitely lived up its legendary status.<\/p>\n Coming from California, I am used to paying 40 percent in taxes on cannabis and I naively expected to find cheaper bud in Alaska. I could not have been more wrong, but I was also not alone. According to Bass, \u201ca lot of people don\u2019t understand the taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n She explained that cannabis \u201cis taxed at $50 an ounce, $800 a pound, and that is just the state, cities can put taxes on top of that.\u201d Skagway had an additional 5 percent sales tax on top of that state tax.<\/p>\n Alaska\u2019s\u00a0Marijuana Control Board<\/a>\u00a0is currently debating changing the tax structure, particularly because of an inconsistency that makes the tax rates on less-pricey bud higher than tax rates on top-shelf bud. They are also looking to finally allow cannabis consumption lounges, something that Bass is ready and waiting for.<\/p>\n \u201cI was one of the first people to apply for it with my license,\u201d Bass said, noting she had already planned to convert the outdoor area we were speaking in \u2014 under the watchful gaze of picturesque snow-capped Alaskan mountains \u2014 into a consumption lounge.<\/p>\n \u201c[On-site consumption] makes sense and we would love it,\u201d Bass said. \u201cWe depend on the tourist industry and they need a safe place to go and use cannabis.\u201d<\/p>\n Bass said that this was the\u00a0third time<\/a>\u00a0the state has debated on-site consumption, so hopefully the third time\u2019s a charm. Soon, she believes, Alaska\u2019s tourists will have a place to legally enjoy some of Skagway\u2019s finest bud and the green rush can begin.<\/p>\n Remedy Shoppe<\/strong><\/p>\n 371 3rd Ave<\/strong><\/p>\n Skagway, AK 99840<\/strong><\/p>\n remedyshoppe907.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n (907) 983-3345<\/strong><\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, have you ever been a weed tourist?<\/p>\n Originally published in Issue 35 of Cannabis Now.\u00a0LEARN MORE<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n The post In Alaska, Cannabis Creeps Towards the Last Frontier<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Tara Bass is the owner of the\u00a0Remedy Shoppe, Alaska\u2019s first\u00a0licensed adult-use dispensary\u00a0and the only such storefront in Skagway. I met her during a recent trip I took to Alaska, when the huge cruise ship I was traveling on docked in Skagway\u2019s harbor, a major cruise destination for tourists from aroundContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":33526,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[363,403,50,911,141,85,7260,687,8964],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33525"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33525"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33527,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33525\/revisions\/33527"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Skagway-Arial-View.jpg\")
Not Easy Being Green<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Barren, But Not Totally Bleak<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: In Alaska, Cannabis Creeps Towards the Last Frontier<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"