Pubdate: Sat, 21 Nov 2015
Source: Alaska Dispatch News (AK)
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: Laurel Andrews

ALASKA MARIJUANA CONTROL BOARD VOTES TO ALLOW MARIJUANA BARS IN RETAIL OUTLETS

The Marijuana Control Board voted to allow consumption of marijuana 
at retail stores, which, if approved by Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott, would 
make Alaska the first state to permit a regulated area for marijuana 
consumption outside of a person's home or other private spaces.

The change allows for people to buy marijuana at a retail store and 
consume it in a designated area on the premises.

The board voted 3-2 in favor of the amendment, with Loren Jones, 
public health board member, and Peter Mlynarik, the public safety 
board member, dissenting.

The regulations will go to the Department of Law for a formal review 
before heading to Mallott's desk.

The amendment functions as a placeholder; specifics as to what these 
establishments will look like will be decided at a later date, 
director Cynthia Franklin said.

Local laws banning indoor smoking still apply.

The vote represents a major shift from the board's former policy 
position, and comes after heated public debate surrounding 
sanctioning spaces for marijuana use.

Marijuana social clubs, however, where someone brings their own 
marijuana products to consume, are still considered illegal, the board said.

In Alaska, several social clubs focused on marijuana consumption 
opened after legalization, in response to the question of where one 
might go to consume marijuana. But the clubs were deemed to fall 
under the definition of a public place, and since public consumption 
is illegal, so were the clubs, the state argued. The clubs maintained 
they were acting legally.

Then in August, the Marijuana Control Board rolled out proposed 
regulations that would explicitly ban the clubs. The decision was met 
with a wave of negative public comment, including a brief 
demonstration by social club supporters during the board meeting.

The board had argued it didn't have the power to create an additional 
license type, as only four license types (retail, cultivation, 
manufacturing and testing facilities) were specified under Alaska's 
legalization initiative.

The proposed amendment sidesteps the argument by creating a space to 
consume marijuana under the auspices of a retail license. It would 
also exclude the retailers from the definition of a public space.

With the passage of the vote, Alaska is bucking a trend that has so 
far held steady in other states that have legalized recreational 
marijuana, where there are no state-sanctioned places to consume marijuana.

In Washington and Colorado, public consumption is illegal. In July, 
though, legislation was passed in Washington that explicitly banned clubs.

In Colorado, local governments are taking a crack at rules that would 
allow for clubs. The state doesn't monitor or license spaces for 
consumption, wrote Ro Silva, acting communications director for the 
Colorado Department of Revenue.

Meanwhile, in Oregon, social clubs are neither expressly permitted 
nor banned, said Mark Pettinger, spokesman for the recreational 
marijuana program with the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, but 
public consumption is likewise banned.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom