As of Tuesday, Feb. 24, it is now legal in Alaska for adults over the age of 21 to possess and use up to an ounce of marijuana. But any kind of sale of the drug or use in public remains illegal; while Nome and communities across the state are scrambling to set additional marijuana regulations, state lawmakers are working out how the now-legal drug will be regulated.
The latest step in that state-level regulatory process is Senate Bill 60, which would establish a Marijuana Control Board to regulate the sale of the drug statewide.
November’s Ballot Measure 2 set out to legalize the use of marijuana for adults, and it passed statewide with a vote of 52 percent in favor to 48 against. Voters in the Norton Sound region voted in favor of legal pot by an even wider margin, with 57 percent voting “yes” to 43 percent “no.”
After being approved by voters, the initiative set out a timeline not only for legal marijuana but also for the eventual legal growing and sale of the drug.
The first part of that timeline arrives Tuesday, as adults over the age of 21 can legally possess one ounce of marijuana, grow up to six plants (but only three can be mature), and give the drug to other adults. The sale of marijuana and other pot-based items like marijuana-infused food or oils remains illegal until lawmakers hammer out final regulations for the state’s marijuana marketplace. That could take until the end of the year and possibly into 2016.
In the meantime, local communities are writing their own rules. The City of Nome is preparing a slate of new ordinances that—if approved by the city council—could set up restrictions and other regulations on the use and sale of legal marijuana in city limits.
Much like alcohol, those restrictions could invoke the “local option” and ban legal marijuana sales in a community entirely. Unlike alcohol, however, a “local option” ban could not stop an individual from keeping personal amounts of the drug in their home.
In a written release, Nome Police Chief John Papasodora said he doesn’t expect much to change with the drug becoming legal Tuesday. He stressed it remains illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to use marijuana. Smoking pot while driving, or driving after smoking it, could result in a citation for driving under the influence: in this case, the influence of marijuana. And Chief Papasodora said having an “open container” of marijuana in the vehicle would be cited like an open container of alcohol.
Chief Papasodora wrote that officers with the Nome Police Department will “follow the law” when it comes to enforcement within city limits. He said that means treating anyone consuming marijuana in public as if they were drinking alcohol in public, and enforcing DUIs regardless of the substance of which drivers are under the influence.
A complete question-and-answer designed to help Alaskans stay on the right side of the state’s new marijuana laws can be found at the website for the Alaska Department of Commerce’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Board; it’s the de facto regulating body until the recently-proposed Marijuana Control Board is approved by the state legislature.
