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COMMITTEE REVIEWS 18 AMENDMENTS TO POT BILL

JUNEAU - The day after hearing scathing public testimony for changes it made to a marijuana crime bill, the Senate Finance Committee returned on Thursday to make more than a dozen tweaks to the bill.

The committee reviewed 18 amendments to Senate Bill 30, which aims to smooth out wrinkles between the now-on-the-books voter initiative that legalized marijuana and existing criminal laws, accepting all but one.

Sen.  Anna MacKinnon, R-Eagle River, lead the meeting and opened it by saying the committee mostly listened the public.

"In direct response to people who testified yesterday, I offer 18 amendments today for policy considerations," she said.

But she held fast on the committee's decision to keep marijuana on Alaska's list of controlled substances, one of the most contentious issues brought up by testifiers.  The Senate Judiciary Committee, which spent more than a month working on the bill, had moved it down to regulated substances.

McKinnon said the initiative didn't move it down, so the Senate won't either.

"There were many people who testified about the issue of controlled substances, but there's a misconception about what the bill proposed," she said.  "Let's be clear, the initiative language did not remove marijuana as a controlled substance, the initiative language did not decriminalize all marijuana possession in Alaska."

She did defend the changes in SB 30, saying that currently possessing four or more ounces of marijuana in public could land a person with a felony.  Under SB 30, a felony wouldn't kick in until 16 ounces.  Between three and 16 ounces would be a class a misdemeanor under SB 30.

An amendment that would have clarified that only "usable marijuana" counted toward the limits - not stalks or roots - was the only amendment to be tabled.  Legislative aides said it would return on Friday specifying that the crimes don't apply for marijuana grown at home.

Other notable amendments that were made to the bill included removing a provision that could have required tracking marijuana concentrate sales, a way for minors to reduce monetary penalties by going through treatment courses and an acknowledgement that overdosing on marijuana isn't possible.

SB 30 had proposed to limit sales of marijuana concentrates to five grams per day.  Testifiers worried it would create a statewide database to track sales, something specifically banned by Ballot Measure 2.  The amendment would instead limit concentrate sales to five grams per transaction.

The amendment relating to usable marijuana and an unfinished amendment dealing with local control of commercial marijuana sales in unorganized areas of the state are expected to appear when the committee resumes work today, MacKinnon said.