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STATE SHOULD CLARIFY POT CLUB STATUS

Gray Area for Social Clubs Could Lead to Patchwork Local Regulation

After the closure of The Higher Calling cannabis club last week, the argument over a proposed Fairbanks North Star Borough ordinance that would close similar marijuana-related businesses operating without a state license may be less heated.  But it will still be important, as social marijuana clubs now exist in a sort of legal limbo not yet addressed under state law.  And while the borough certainly could step in to regulate that gray area, it's really the state's responsibility to clarify the law so that current and prospective operators can know whether their businesses are sanctioned.  It's a situation that has gone unaddressed for too long.

Borough ordinance 2016-22, sponsored by Assemblyman Christopher Quist, would bar the operation of businesses that allow the use of marijuana without a "valid, current state registration." The measure is intended to bar all marijuana businesses operating without licenses, but in practice, it would only have applied to The Higher Calling, a fact that rubbed that club's proprietors the wrong way and made its supporters allege ulterior motives targeting the business specifically.

Ensuring that all marijuana businesses are properly licensed is not a bad thing.  But there's a bit of a hitch: For marijuana clubs like The Higher Calling, in which the drug can be used but isn't grown or sold, licenses don't exist.  It's not that the club's proprietors and those of a handful of other similar establishments around the state chose not to get the proper license for their business - they couldn't if they had wanted to.  There's no law against that sort of business and the consumption of marijuana on private property is legal, so their situation isn't addressed by the state.

Mr.  Quist would like to see the borough address that legal limbo.  But if there is to be uniformity across Alaska instead of a patchwork of inconsistent local regulations, the decision about whether or not such clubs can operate should be made at the state level.  Since the state is the licensing authority and has already laid out procedures for licensing for retail and cultivation-related marijuana businesses, it's only logical that the state make the call about whether marijuana clubs should be legal and licensed as well.

The other half of Mr.  Quist's ordinance - that the borough be established as a local regulatory authority on marijuana license applications - is entirely sensible.  As with alcohol licensing, it's a good idea for the borough to have a role in the licensing of marijuana businesses, and to serve as a venue for local input and concerns about those businesses.

But a ban on unlicensed marijuana establishments before licenses for some marijuana-related businesses have been established or defined is putting the cart before the horse.  It's the state's responsibility to define what businesses are legal and provide licensing for them, and state authorities have let the marijuana club gray area go unaddressed too long.  Whether or not the clubs are found to be in keeping with the intent of voters in legalizing marijuana consumption, possession, use and sale, there should be definition and clarity on the matter.

It's hard to blame Mr.  Quist for wanting to provide that clarity at a borough level, given the number of businesses capitalizing on the loophole and the inaction on it thus far.  But the state is the authority that should make the determination, and the borough should take its lead from that decision.  It's past time for the matter of marijuana clubs to be sorted out.