Pubdate: Thu, 28 Jan 2016 Source: Alaska Dispatch News (AK) Copyright: 2016 Alaska Dispatch Publishing Contact: http://www.adn.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/18 Note: Anchorage Daily News until July '14 Author: Carl Bartenstein STATE WON'T ALLOW ORGANIC LABEL ON POT, BUT PUBLIC WANTS TO KNOW The Marijuana Control Board has released a big set of requirements and procedures. If you're interested in reading them, you can find them by snooping around a little bit on the Alaska state website - it's under "Online Public Notices." I was skimming through and something caught my eye. On about page 74, it is stated that a marijuana product may not be labeled as organic. I'm not sure why this regulation is in place. Anyone who cultivates cannabis to sell is required to report what nutrients and grow mediums are used in the cultivation process, so it would be quite easy for the authorities to determine that something is truly organic. What's the deal? There will inevitably be cannabis consumers in the near future who want bud grown in nice organic compost with all-natural fertilizers instead of bud grown with some other kind of inorganic plant food. It's not all that different from someone who will not drink a Coors Light but will gladly down a pint of their favorite craft brew. So what is the cannabis cultivator allowed to do to market their organic and fair-trade product to the people who want it? If they aren't allowed to up and say "organic," can they say "free of inorganic nutrients and fertilizers," or, "grown in Alaskan compost"? Really though, I'd like to understand why there is a regulation against simply saying "organic." - - Carl Bartenstein Anchorage - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom