On the front page of the July 22 ADN there was an article about the Anchorage Police Department, with six to eight officers having drawn their weapons, seizing a van. This van had just delivered marijuana and its seizure was part of an ongoing investigation.

Over the several months that these delivery services have been in operation, to the best of my knowledge, none have been the cause of, been involved in, or even been close to, any violent crimes. Violent crimes would include fights, assaults, knifings, shootings, home invasions, rapes or murders.

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FAIRBANKS (AP) -- The Fairbanks North Star Borough has made its proposed ordinance dealing with the nascent marijuana industry public.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports that borough Mayor Luke Hopkins plans to introduce the ordinance at the July 30 Borough Assembly meeting. The 14-page document became public in a packet outlining the meeting agenda.

The ordinance must be reviewed by the Planning Commission and approved by the assembly before it becomes law.

In the ordinance, a 500-foot buffer zone around schools, playgrounds and public housing with children is proposed. A 200-foot buffer would be around colleges, universities and vocational schools and a 100-foot buffer would surround residential areas, youth centers, public pools and arcades.

The proposal also limits home grown marijuana intended to be sold to property outside of residential zones.

[end]

Chris wonders after a previous Highly Informed column noted that alternatives to smoking cannabis aren't without potential risks: "I've been a daily user of edibles and am feeling like I've become allergic: runny nose, stuffed sinus, sneezing etc. Is this a possible side effect?"

First off, it is possible for people to be allergic to cannabis, and the indications so far are that such allergies respond to common treatments. Cannabis, like many other plants, weeds and grasses, can cause the immune system to overreact in defense. That overreaction is what we call an allergy. An extreme kind of allergic reaction is known as anaphylaxis. It is severe and life-threatening, and can come upon someone in seconds. In anaphylaxis, the flood of chemicals sent by the body can cause symptoms like shock, constriction of the airway and decrease in blood pressure.

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In the past two months, police have seized two cars from an Anchorage marijuana delivery service. The owners said they've been left in the dark about when -- or even if -- their property will be returned.

Experts say current search and seizure laws allow law enforcement to take and hold the property, though they contend the Alaska Legislature needs to rethink the laws in terms of a ballot initiative that legalized recreational marijuana in Alaska.

Michael Crites, who owns Absolutely Chronic Delivery Company along with his wife, said two Anchorage Police Department stings in recent months resulted in the loss of two cars tied to the business.

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Basic economics says that limiting supply will drive up price. Presumably heroin deaths in Alaska are lower than they might be due to a high price for the drug caused by the limit on supply created by its illegality. But the "elasticity of demand" for an addictive substance is low; people will pay anything at all for it if they need it (note that bars do fine in tough economic times). We might question whether the high price actually promotes its use, since sellers are so motivated by the high profit margins that they not only risk long prison terms but will fight deadly battles to protect "market share" from other sellers.

I recommend that policymakers and those who vote for them read "Chasing the Scream" by Johann Hari, a polemical history of drug laws in America and worldwide.

- - Frank Cahill

Anchorage

[end]

I don't smoke pot but I defer to the many Alaskans who have opted to make it legal. Now watching from the comfort of my heavily stuffed armchair I watch as our government makes the rules of the road for using marijuana; rules that will probably make it more difficult to use than when it was illegal. For example, you can't consume it in public (no one has clearly defined public), you can only have six plants of which only three can be flowering (as determined by the city's newly appointed on-call forensic botanist), and now my favorite fresh from the Assembly (drum roll please) ... you have to keep it in your trunk when transporting it and if you have a vehicle without a trunk you'll be arrested for not having a trunk.

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This week, Highly Informed will take on a question that may seem a bit absurd on its face but is actually quite interesting to consider.

Sometimes entertaining absurdity can be instructive, and sometimes (as with the famous quotation ascribed to Tertullian defending a core tenet of Christianity, "I believe it because it is absurd") it can serve as the basis for strong conviction.

With that in mind, Let's get to it. "Concerned Citizen" asks: "Dear Highly Informed, if morning conditions are right in the Anchorage bowl, would it be possible for an inversion to trap all the pot smoke and get the whole city high?"

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Alaska's Budding Marijuana Entrepreneurs Waver Between What's Legal and What's Not

At a glance, Alaska's first marijuana trade show suggested a slow march forward on the path toward regulated, commercial weed.

After fighting to be allowed to display marijuana at the Northwest Cannabis Classic in mid-May, organizer Cory Wray was given the OK just days before the event. Vendors could display marijuana at the show, legally and with the blessing of the city.

Thousands of cannabis enthusiasts and entrepreneurs flocked to the Dena'ina Center for the event. They congregated around bushy marijuana plants, lingered on the third-floor deck -- where it was easy to catch a whiff of pot smoke -- and listened to seminars by some of the major players in the emerging industry.

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Heroin is taking a unprecedented toll on Alaska, with deaths, overdoses and medical costs sharply rising, according to a new report by the state Division of Public Health.

The 18-page report, released Tuesday, details the dimensions of the problem. It comes a week after the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the similarly staggering results of their own survey of heroin and opiate use nationwide.

Related: After a daughter's heroin overdose, a mother's grief

Among the findings in the Alaska report:

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The authors of a proposed Anchorage ordinance expanding open-container laws to marijuana want you to keep your cannabis in the trunk of your car.

Anchorage Assembly members Ernie Hall and Amy Demboski will introduce four proposed ordinances at Tuesday's Assembly meeting that touch on the finer points of marijuana regulation, from defining "personal cultivation" to possession of cannabis in limousines.

A chance for the public to weigh in will come later.

The proposed ordinances are largely "housekeeping" matters of bringing municipal code into alignment with state statute, Hall said.

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Does the picture of a man "toking up" really belong on the front page of your newspaper? I am simply amazed viewing people in the news, and on TV puffing smoke into the camera and into our faces with the most infantile look. It's almost like a small child receiving an ice cream cone for the first time, only that would deserve an exhilarating look!

Is this what we've become? Looking for the next high and then the next, and then the next? Heaven help us if we try to enjoy activities in a sober state. I can voice my opinion as I have lived in a glass house, but fortunately chose to live and function in an unaltered state!

- - Rolf L. Bilet

Anchorage

[end]

Thanks to everyone for having patience during Highly Informed's hiatus. We start back up this week with an intriguing question from "Lago Prano": "I know authorities have been saying that selling pot is illegal, but what about buying it? Is the act of buying pot against the law if you don't buy too much?"

This question opens up a few interesting implications for anti-drug policy itself, but we'll keep the discussion focused on Alaska. The short answer is no; the very act of handing someone money in Alaska and receiving a legal amount of cannabis is not illegal for the person handing over the money.

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Alaska stands to make between $5.1 million and $19.2 million in tax revenue from commercial marijuana in 2016, according to a preliminary estimate by the Alaska Department of Revenue.

An estimate dated Jan. 2 looks at possible revenues that it calls "very uncertain." The tax division had to estimate both how much marijuana is consumed in Alaska every year and what proportion of consumers will switch to marijuana from the legal retail market, said Ken Alper, Department of Revenue tax division director.

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Judging by the scene at Pot Luck Events on Wednesday night, one would never guess the state has advised the club to shut down.

Members had come to the downtown Anchorage marijuana social club to smoke, take dab hits and watch the "Chronic Comedy Show," while eating free candy provided at the nonalcoholic bar. "Bud of the week" samples -- provided by growers, not the club, owner Theresa Collins explained -- were displayed on a table in the back of the room.

Yet the club, which has been open since March, is one of six businesses that received cease-and-desist letters from Cynthia Franklin, director of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board and the newly created Marijuana Control Board, in late June.

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The five members who will make up Alaska's first Marijuana Control Board were named Wednesday morning by Gov. Bill Walker.

The Marijuana Control Board is tasked with crafting Alaska's regulations surrounding legalized recreational and commercial marijuana. The board is made up of volunteers and will function under the auspices of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, sharing the staff and resources of the agency.

Walker said in a release the appointees "bring with them decades of experience in public health, business development and rural issues. With their different backgrounds and diverse skill sets, they will help shepherd in regulations for this new industry."

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Q: We legalized pot in this state in February, so can you tell me how I got fired for THC on my drug test last week? I smoke in my house and on my own time and it's none of my employer's business.

A: Although we legalized recreational marijuana use in Alaska, you probably don't have a winnable lawsuit, particularly if your organization has a zero-tolerance policy regarding drug use.

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WASILLA -- Residents of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, considered Alaska's cannabis-growing capital, may see a commercial marijuana ban on the ballot this year.

Backers of at least two voter initiatives want local ballots in October to include an option to prohibit marijuana businesses such as grow operations, testing labs and retail dispensaries except those involving industrial hemp.

The borough mayor is one of several initiative sponsors behind the push to ban "cannabusiness" at the voting box, even as a borough committee appointed by the mayor himself starts work on local regulations.

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The Anchorage Assembly voted late Tuesday night to include marijuana smoke under the city's ban on tobacco smoke.

Within 90 days, businesses and building owners will have to amend "No Smoking" signs to include a reference to marijuana smoke, according to the measure adopted Tuesday.

The city has already enacted a ban on public consumption, which defines a public place as "a place to which the public or a substantial group of persons has access" and includes streets, highways, sidewalks, alleys, transportation facilities and parks and playgrounds. Many of the facilities outlined in the "secondhand smoking" measure are already covered by the ban on public consumption, according to the measure, introduced by Assembly Chair Dick Traini.

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I think that Anchorage Assembly Chair Dick Traini has a good idea but it needs some follow-through. Treat cannabis as tightly as tobacco, yet as loosely as alcohol. That means places for social use need to be tolerated. Responsible tavern keepers want to provide what their customers want, and to discourage what their neighbors don't want. The same as any other business, cannabis cafes will succeed or fail on how they perform. But they must be allowed to perform, as a necessary shove to push prohibition into the past and regulation into the present.

I miss the North. The grinning children beneath the northern lights in Barrow will never leave me. Please be careful with that Chukchi oil. A spill in Santa Barbara has wounded my heart.

- - Jay Bergstrom

Forest Ranch, Calif.

[end]

FAIRBANKS -- Before Alaska marijuana businesses open their doors, owners will need to know they are growing, testing or selling on land zoned for those activities, local government leaders here say, and residents deserve to know in advance what might or might not be allowed in their neighborhoods.

The state has yet to resolve some key questions about marijuana regulation following voter approval of the legalization initiative last November, but local governments have powers under the measure to establish regulations on commercial activities, though they cannot prohibit personal use.

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