On-site cannabis use at specially licensed retail establishments may be coming to Alaska as soon as this summer, thanks new regulations officially approved by Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer on March 12.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Under the new regs, laid out in a\u00a0memorandum<\/a> now bearing the lieutenant governor\u2019s signature, licensed retailers will be able to apply with state overseers for an additional \u201con-site consumption endorsement.\u201d<\/p>\n The Alaska Marijuana Control Board approved the rules back in December. The regulations then had to pass muster by the state Department of Law before arriving on Meyer\u2019s desk. <\/p>\n \u201cThe big news is, the suspense is over,\u201d an enthused Mark Springer, chair of the Control Board, told Anchorage Daily News<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m sure there is a lot of excitement in the industry today.\u201d<\/p>\n Many in the advocacy community also share in the elation. \u201cWhen these rules go into effect, Alaska will be the first state to finalize and approve statewide rules for on-site consumption. We expect more to follow suit in the not too distant future,\u201d\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0Erik Altieri, executive director of\u00a0NORML<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cAllowing social consumption is sensible from a business perspective, particularly for states with large amounts of tourists who otherwise have no place to legally consume, but it also has an important social justice component,\u201d Altieri stressed.<\/p>\n With \u201csocial consumption\u201d restricted by state laws, many patients \u201chave to choose between effective cannabis treatment for their ailments or being thrown out of public housing,\u201d Altieri elaborated. Section 8 housing residents are officially barred<\/a>\u00a0from using cannabis in their own homes, for instance. Therefore, \u201cthe civil liberties that come with marijuana legalization [are] still being kept at arms\u2019 length from low-income individuals and members of other marginalized communities.\u201d<\/p>\n Under the new rules, areas where customers can partake on-site will have to be separate from other parts of the store, with a ventilation system in place. A smoke-free space for employees to monitor the consumption area must be maintained. Cannabis consumed on-site must be purchased on-site, not brought in from elsewhere.<\/p>\n The Control Board must review all applications, and its next meeting is scheduled for early May. So, while the new regs officially take effect April 11, that does not leave enough turn-around time for businesses to have their applications ready for submission, according to Erika McConnell, director of the Alcohol & Marijuana Control Office<\/a>, the Control Board\u2019s parent body.<\/p>\n \u201cIn theory, operations could begin shortly after that meeting, but it will depend on the circumstances of each individual application, of course,\u201d McConnell told the\u00a0Associated Press<\/a>. She said the first on-site consumption sales would probably begin in the summer.<\/p>\n Municipalities will be empowered to limit on-site consumption by local vote, or to challenge applications in certain circumstances.<\/p>\n While Alaska is the first to go statewide with an on-site consumption policy, some localities in states legalization states in the Lower 48 have already been pursuing such a model \u2014 most notably Denver and West Hollywood.\u00a0<\/p>\n Denver\u2019s\u00a0Cannabis Consumption Establishment<\/a>\u00a0licensing program has only issued one such permit so far, according to local weekly\u00a0Westword<\/a>. A bill that would have allowed dispensary \u201ctasting rooms\u201d was actually passed by the Colorado General Assembly, but was last June\u00a0vetoed<\/a>\u00a0by Gov. John Hickenlooper. Several Denver retailers, however, have worked around the state law by operating private lounges as \u201cevent spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n California\u2019s Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulatory Safety Act (MAUCRSA),\u00a0which took effect on New Year\u2019s Day 2018, does\u00a0allow<\/a> localities to authorize on-site consumption at state-licensed retail outlets, without special state oversight. However, cities like West Hollywood and San Francisco are among just a few in the state to have taken advantage of this. <\/p>\n Alaska seems poised to pursue this model far more ambitiously.<\/p>\n This is not the first time Alaska has been in the vanguard of cannabis liberation in the United States. In 1975, Alaska\u2019s supreme court struck down the state\u2019s marijuana laws on privacy grounds, effectively instating the country\u2019s most liberal decrim policy \u2014 even allowing growing of small quantities.<\/p>\n In 1990, on the tail-end of the Reagan-era anti-drug backlash, Alaska voters overturned the decriminalization policy in a referendum. But in 2003, Alaska\u2019s courts struck down the recriminalization law on privacy grounds. This effectively made it permissible to possess personal quantities again, although a new and less restrictive recriminalization passed in 2006 was upheld by the state\u2019s courts. \u00a0Finally, in 2014, Alaska voters approved Measure 2, actually legalizing adult-use cannabis and returning the Last Frontier to the trail it blazed back in 1975.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, would you travel to Alaska for the on-site consumption perks?<\/p>\n The post Will Anchorage Be the Next Amsterdam? Alaska to Allow On-Site Consumption<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
On-site cannabis use at specially licensed retail establishments may be coming to Alaska as soon as this summer, thanks new regulations officially approved by Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer on March 12.\u00a0 Under the new regs, laid out in a\u00a0memorandum now bearing the lieutenant governor\u2019s signature, licensed retailers will be ableContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[159,403,4578,634,50,99,687,5043,362],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33771"}],"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\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33771"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33772,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33771\/revisions\/33772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A Social Justice Question<\/h4>\n
Summer Sales Ant<\/strong>icipated<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Denver and California Testing the Waters <\/h4>\n
Final Frontier Back in the Vanguard<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: Will Anchorage Be the Next Amsterdam? Alaska to Allow On-Site Consumption<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"