Pubdate: Thu, 27 Aug 2015
Source: Alaska Dispatch News (AK)
Column: Highly Informed
Copyright: 2015 Alaska Dispatch Publishing
Contact:  http://www.adn.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/18
Note: Anchorage Daily News until July '14
Author: Scott Woodham

WOULD PROPOSED RULE CONTRADICT ALASKA INITIATIVE ON CANNABIS GIFTS?

"AKEngineer" is hoping for clarity on a source of confusion he or she 
discovered in close readings of the proposed regulations that will 
eventually shape Alaska's legal cannabis industry:

The ballot initiative specifically made it legal to give up to an 
ounce of marijuana to someone over 21. The proposed new regulations 
(appear to contradict the law and) make it illegal to give any amount 
"to a consumer" without purchasing a $5,000 license and going through 
a bureaucratic mess. Do regulations trump the law passed by the 
citizens? Or, if I give a friend a joint, is he/she not a "consumer"?

Well, if AKEngineer gives a friend a joint, one would expect that 
person to consume it. But does consumption actually make someone a 
"consumer"? Engineer specifically referenced some lines in the 
proposed reg 3 AAC 306.300 as the source of his confusion:

A person may not sell, give, distribute, or deliver, or offer to 
sell, give, distribute, or deliver marijuana or any marijuana product 
to a consumer unless the person has obtained a marijuana retail store 
license from the board in compliance with this chapter, or is an 
employee or agent of a licensed marijuana retail store operating in 
compliance with this chapter."

That section of regulation, titled, "Marijuana retail store license 
required," then goes on to describe how a person seeking a retail 
store license should proceed and what provisions of state code he or 
she must observe in seeking that license.

The apparent contradiction arose for AKEngineer because the statute 
passed by voters as Ballot Measure 2 specifically allows adults 21 or 
older to give each other up to an ounce of cannabis. For folks 
keeping score at home, that statute's 17.38.020, clause 3: "... 
transferring one ounce or less of marijuana and up to six immature 
marijuana plants to a person who is 21 years of age or older without 
remuneration."

That set of statutes is titled "Personal use of marijuana," and many 
regulations being proposed, discussed and propagated right now by the 
state boards concern the future legal commercial use of marijuana, 
especially the one being asked about here. And although it may seem 
strange to read the phrase "legal commercial use of marijuana," 
that's where this understandable confusion ends.

The proposed regulation does not change the statute in 17.38.020, so 
AKEngineer will still be free to give a joint (or up to 27.5 grams of 
them, for that matter) to a friend 21 or older. Cynthia Franklin, 
director of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, confirmed that 
conclusion in an email.

The rule causing AKEngineer's confusion, she wrote, "addresses 
non-17.38.020 giving and black market selling, distributing and 
delivering of marijuana," not personal use cannabis.

Generally speaking, statutes guide the efforts of regulators. And 
here, the statute is crystal clear on the point of regular adult 
Alaskans giving Jah's Gift to each other from their own stashes. But 
a regulated industry is a different thing entirely, and whatever form 
it settles on will be more formal than the world of personal use.

Take the word "consumer" for instance. That word gained a formal 
statutory definition in connection to cannabis when the initiative 
took effect, and it describes a narrower sort of person than just 
someone who partakes.

Under the heading of statute 17.38.900, titled "Definitions," is a 
list of terms and their explicit meanings, which "unless the context 
otherwise requires," or unless they're amended by lawmakers, serve to 
guide regulators.

In that list, a "consumer" is "a person 21 years of age or older who 
purchases marijuana or marijuana products for personal use by persons 
21 years of age or older, but not for resale to others."

So whether a person smokes tree doesn't matter for that definition. 
The term is a very specific one that describes people who buy it, but 
not for resale, from a licensed outlet. Technically, to exist, a 
consumer requires a regulated market, and so far, there isn't one.

It's significant that "personal use" appears in that definition, too. 
After consumers purchase it, they can smoke it, give it away, fashion 
a set of gnarly fake eyebrows, or whatever else they want to do with 
it that's allowed by law. Because it'll be theirs for their own 
non-commercial use.

Have a question about marijuana news or culture in Alaska? Send it to  with "Highly Informed" in the subject line.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom