As public opinion increasingly favors the legalization of recreational marijuana, a growing number of states must determine how to tax legal sales of cannabis. To date, nine states (Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington) and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational marijuana, but only eight of these jurisdictions have legal markets. […]
Alaska
Alaska: Army Prohibits Soldiers From Attending Marijuana Events
Alaska-based soldiers have been barred from attending any events involving promotion of the use of marijuana or hemp, including all fairs, festivals and conventions, to clarify the military’s position as the state prepares to allow legal pot sales. The policy, issued by Maj. Gen. Bryan Owens, commander of U.S. Army Alaska, was announced Thursday and […]
Alaska Marijuana Control Board Approves First Retail Marijuana License
Alaska marijuana regulators have approved the first permit for a pot retail store. The Alaska Marijuana Control Board on Thursday approved the permit for Frozen Budz, which will be located in Fairbanks. Co-owner Destiny Neade received a round of applause from the audience and clapped herself. As she walked back to her seat, she told […]
Anchorage Assembly Take Big Step: Approves First Commercial Grow
The Anchorage Assembly approved the city’s first commercial marijuana grow Tuesday night, a significant step forward for the developing legal cannabis industry. “This whole green revolution, it starts here tonight with the City of Anchorage,” said Assemblyman Dick Traini who voted to approve the local marijuana license and special-use permit for Dream Green Farms and to refer […]
Alaska Marijuana Control Board Overwhelmingly Approves Licenses in Historic Meeting
Alaska’s Marijuana Control Board ended its historic June meeting Friday afternoon after approving most of the grower licenses on its agenda and voting to open up future discussions about advertising and out-of-state investment. On Thursday, the state’s first-ever commercial marijuana businesses were approved. On Friday, the board picked up where it left off, jumping into cultivation license approvals. […]
Alaska Regulators Approve First Marijuana Licenses For Growing and Testing
Alaska regulators were applauded Thursday as they approved the first licenses for legal marijuana growing and testing facilities — another milestone for the fledgling industry. Priority was being given to growing and testing operations to ensure that retail stores will have legal product to sell. The first retail licenses are expected to be issued later […]
Alaska Zeroes in on Regulations For Cannabis Bars
No happy hours, but serving food and non-alcoholic beverages would be allowed in Alaska’s marijuana cafes, according to draft rules accepted by the state’s Marijuana Control Board. On Tuesday, the board agreed on draft regulations that show the first details of what the “on-site consumption” area, akin to a café or bar, would look like. The draft […]
Alaska’s Marijuana Social Clubs Dwindle, Now Down to Only One
Anchorage’s Pot Luck Events is the only marijuana social club still operating without a legal challenge, as statewide puzzlement to their legality produces a patchwork of local controls. Fairbanks’ The Higher Calling and Homer’s Kachemak Cannabis Club have both closed, and the City of Kenai is seeking an injunction against Green Rush Events. The clubs, […]
Cannabis Business Licenses in Alaska Held Up by Legislative Gridlock
Prospective marijuana business owner Bryant Thorp was the very first person in Alaska to get word that his cannabusiness application was complete, except for one thing — a background check that the state doesn’t have the legal authority to conduct. In the Marijuana Control Board’s March 25 letter to Thorp the agency wrote that it couldn’t […]
Alaska’s First Marijuana Business Applicants Are an Eclectic Bunch
From Herbal Outfitters LLC to Dazed Dog Gardens, there’s no shortage of creative and pun-laden business names in the nearly 200 marijuana business licenses that are currently working through the Alaska state system, which were released Tuesday. The public can now see all the in-progress marijuana business applications on the Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office’s website. For businesses that are far […]
Alaska Signs Deal With Seed-to-Sale Tracking Company
The company that will provide a seed-to-sale tracking system for every single cannabis plant in Alaska’s commercial industry is the same company that tracks commercial cannabis in Colorado and Oregon, the state announced this week. Franwell, which calls itself a technology company focusing on supply chain tracking, has contracted with the state for more than […]
Alaska Geography Makes Licensing For Cannabis Industry a Statewide Challenge
Alaska’s mountainous terrain is the state’s biggest obstacle (literally) to getting everyone in the marijuana industry online and registered. Not only is Alaska’s population a sparce 740,000 — the residents are spread out to a degree unimaginable in most states, with only 40 percent of population centers accessible by roads. The only way to get […]
On Day 1, Alaska Gets 68 Applications For Commercial Cannabis Licenses
In its first day accepting materials, the state’s Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office received 68 applications for commercial cannabis licenses. In a release sent out Thursday, the office said the roll out of its new online application system has gone smoothly, for the most part. However, reports of a wide-spread snag led AMCO to issue a […]
Marijuana Retailers Set to Open in Alaska Next Fall
Alaskans looking to buy legal commercial marijuana will have to wait until after summer to walk into a shop, according to an updated timeline made public in mid-February. The state Marijuana Control Board will sort its approval process by business type – with cultivation businesses approved first and retail stores last. The rationale is that the state’s first legal commercial marijuana […]
Alaska Marijuana Board Moving Glacially on Drafting Regulations
JUNEAU, Alaska — The board tasked with regulating the Alaska marijuana industry provided guidance Thursday for yet-to-be-drafted rules to allow for people to use marijuana at certain stores that will sell it. Staff to the Marijuana Control Board had hoped to provide language for an onsite consumption retail endorsement for the meeting but, given its […]
Alaska Marijuana Board Debating Whether to Allow “On-Site Consumption”
With less than two weeks to go before the first entrepreneurs can apply for an Alaska marijuana license, the Alaska Marijuana Control Board on Thursday approved the forms and documents that await those who seek to grow, test, sell and make products from Alaska’s newest legal crop. That bit of bureaucratic business was overshadowed, however, […]
Alaska Closing in on Governing Rules for Commercial Cannabis
All but two parts of Alaska’s rules governing commercial marijuana were approved by the state government Friday, with one section addressing criminal background checks and another providing exceptions to marijuana testing for growers in rural areas struck down by the state Department of Law. On Dec. 1, the five-member Marijuana Control Board made its final tweaks […]
Anchorage Voters Will Consider Retail Marijuana Sales Tax in April
The Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday night approved a ballot measure that will ask voters in April whether marijuana retail sales should be taxed, starting at 5 percent. The ballot measure would authorize the Assembly to increase the tax up to 12 percent without going back to voters again, but only once every two years and […]
