Pubdate: Tue, 24 Feb 2015
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2015 The Associated Press
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Molly Dischner

ALASKA JOINS MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION FESTIVITIES

Regulated, taxed pot marketplace won't start until 2016

Juneau, Alaska (AP) - Smoking, growing and possessing marijuana 
becomes legal in America's wildest state Tuesday, thanks to a voter 
initiative aimed at clearing away 40 years of conflicting laws and 
court rulings.

Making Alaska the third state to legalize recreational marijuana was 
the goal of a coalition including libertarians, rugged individualists 
and small-government Republicans who prize the privacy rights 
enshrined in the state's constitution.

But when they voted 53 percent to 47 percent in November to legalize 
marijuana use by adults in private places, they left many of the 
details to lawmakers and regulators to sort out.

Meanwhile, Alaska Native leaders worry that legalization will bring 
new temptations to communities already confronting high rates of drug 
and alcohol abuse, domestic violence and suicide.

"When they start depending on smoking marijuana, I don't know how far 
they'd go to get the funds they need to support it, to support 
themselves," said Edward Nick, council member in Manokotak, a remote 
village of 400 that is predominantly Yup'ik Eskimo.

Alcohol and drug use are prohibited in Nick's village 350 miles 
southwest of Anchorage, even inside the privacy of villagers' homes. 
But Nick fears the initiative, in combination with a 1975 state 
Supreme Court decision that legalized marijuana use inside homes - 
could open doors to drug abuse.

Initiative backers promised Native leaders that communities could 
have local control under certain conditions. Alaska law gives every 
community the option to regulate alcohol locally. From northern 
Barrow to Klawock, 1,291 miles away in southeast Alaska, 108 
communities impose local limits on alcohol, and 33 ban it altogether.

But the initiative did not provide clear opt-out language for tribal 
councils and other smaller communities, forcing each one to figure 
out how to proceed Tuesday.

November's initiative also bans smoking in public but didn't define 
what that means. And lawmakers left the question to the alcohol 
regulatory board, which planned to meet Tuesday to discuss an 
emergency response.

In Anchorage, officials tried and failed in December to ban a new 
commercial marijuana industry. Other officials are still discussing a 
proposed cultivation ban for the wild Kenai Peninsula. But far to the 
north, in North Pole, smoking outdoors on private property will be OK 
as long as it doesn't create a nuisance, officials there said.

As of Tuesday, adult Alaskans can not only keep and use pot, they can 
transport, grow it and give it away. A second phase, creating a 
regulated and taxed marijuana market, won't start until 2016 at the earliest.

And while possession is no longer a crime under state law, enjoying 
pot in public can bring a $100 fine.

Former television reporter Charlo Greene, is now CEO of the Alaska 
Cannabis Club, which is having its grand opening Tuesday in downtown Anchorage.

She's already pushing the limits, promising to give away weed to 
paying "medical marijuana" patients and other "club members."

Greene - who quit her job with a fourletter walkoff on live 
television last year to devote her efforts to passing the initiative 
- - plans a celebratory toke at 4:20 p.m.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom