Pubdate: Fri, 05 Dec 2014
Source: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (AK)
Copyright: 2014 Fairbanks Publishing Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://newsminer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/764
Author: Casey Grove

SEN. LESIL MCGUIRE RELEASES ALASKA MARIJUANA LAW ANALYSIS

ANCHORAGE - As legislators soon will turn to the regulation of legal 
marijuana in Alaska and determining what their role should be in it, 
one resource will be a legislative analysis requested by the incoming 
chair of the state Senate Judiciary Committee and released publicly this week.

Anchorage Sen. Lesil McGuire said Thursday she asked for the study, 
prepared by the Legislature's research services analysts, following 
voters' approval of Ballot Measure 2 in this year's general election. 
The 36-page report McGuire's office released this week answers some 
basic questions about implementing marijuana legalization by 
comparing efforts in Washington and Colorado to what might happen in 
Alaska, in terms of costs to the state and tax revenue it might 
generate, and lays out in what areas of the law legislators have influence.

"My goal was to get people a base level of information, and that can 
begin the dialogue," McGuire said.

The initiative passed by 6 percent and legalizes marijuana possession 
for adults 21 and older in late February. It also provides a basic 
structure for the legal sale of pot, not expected to occur until 
2016. Meantime, the initiative directs the Legislature to either 
create a marijuana control board, something McGuire said she 
supports, or leave pot regulation to the state Alcoholic Beverage 
Control Board.

And it opens the possibility for communities to further regulate the 
sale of marijuana.

An Anchorage Municipal Assembly member and mayoral candidate, Amy 
Demboski, has proposed barring marijuana establishments in the city. 
State Rep. Bob Lynn has written a bill to prohibit marijuana sales 
near schools and recreation centers, among other restrictions. A 
joint meeting of the Fairbanks North Star Borough and the cities of 
Fairbanks and North Pole convened recently to hear public concerns.

Other statewide and localization action is sure to come.

"In my opinion, this is the most important issue the Legislature will 
tackle this session," McGuire said.

Striking a balance between the initiative's intent and the wishes of 
both the voters who supported it and those who opposed it could prove 
difficult, McGuire said. Some lawmakers would probably see their job 
as carrying out direct democracy for the voters, and others, who are 
fundamentally opposed to marijuana legalization, will weigh in with 
their beliefs on the matter, she said.

"My hope is that in the Judiciary Committee, we don't go back to a 
debate over Ballot Measure 2 as a whole," McGuire said.

McGuire said she supports forming a separate marijuana control board, 
because the current Alcoholic Beverage Control Board has plenty of work.

"The revenue part of it is going to be a big part of the discussion," 
McGuire said.

In a rough estimate of price and number of potential pot sales, 
research by the Colorado Marijuana Policy Group included in the 
legislative research report says Alaska could see as much as $55 
million in retail sales the first year, with $7 million in tax 
revenue, and sales of $107 million generating taxes of $23 million by 2020.

The report also notes, like with alcohol use, limits on marijuana use 
will need to be set for impaired drivers, and there will be costs to 
public safety to address, like paying for law enforcement officers' 
extra training on how to determine if a person is too stoned to 
drive. Developing a regulatory and tax framework will likely be the 
most expensive part of implementing the law at first, according to 
the report, which says long-term costs will be due more to public 
health and education spending.

With information from Washington and Colorado, which preceded Alaska 
in legalizing marijuana, as well as other sources, the report 
estimates Alaska's total costs in implementing legalization to be 
between $3.7 million and

$7 million the first year.

Public safety concerns, as well as how to reinvest tax revenue in 
enforcement and education efforts, are among the several distinct 
aspects of marijuana legalization people seem to have, McGuire said.

Those are things the Legislature will seek to address, she said.

"I want the public to have a full, robust discussion, but not about 
the measure itself," McGuire said. "The measure has passed. The point 
now is what are the reasonable places, where there have been 
community concerns that should be addressed."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom