Alaska collects $145,800 marijuana tax in December<\/a>]<\/p>\nIt\u2019s the first time the matter has been addressed at the state level in the U.S., said Chris Lindsey, a senior legislative counsel with the Marijuana Policy Project. Recreational marijuana is legal in eight states and the District of Columbia. Denver is considering licenses for marijuana social clubs.<\/p>\n
Even if the Alaska board approves onsite consumption, don\u2019t expect to walk into a store on Friday for a sit-and-smoke. Retail stores must file applications for such a lounge, which includes how it will be separated from the retail operation and ventilated and what is the security plan. Many retail stores will also have to get waivers on local ordinances banning smoking.<\/p>\n
Critics fear an Amsterdam-like scene and pot spilling out of the retail stores onto streets and trails. They hope the state pot board on puts in place restrictions to keep onsite consumption from happening.<\/p>\n
The Barrett brothers in December opened Rainforest Farms, where Gorilla Glue \u2014 with a THC level of 23.8 percent \u2014 is their best seller. They share concerns about cruise ship passengers smoking pot in alleys or on trails but say the easy solution is giving them a place to legally smoke their weed or eat their edibles before they head back to the ship.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a lot of tourists that come to Juneau \u2014 over a million every year \u2014 and a place for them to consume responsibly seems like a good thing to do,\u201d James Barrett said.<\/p>\n
Many of these tourists will continue on to Anchorage, where they could try more Alaska-grown weed before heading further north on their planned vacations.<\/p>\n
Leah Levinton envisions an Anchorage \u201cgreen light district,\u201d where scores of tourists come on buses to try the offerings at four retail stores in the city\u2019s Spenard neighborhood. She owns Enlighten Alaska with her brother, Evan, and their mother, Jane Stinson.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether or not the state approves onsite consumption, the fact is we\u2019re going to have plenty of people coming from outside the state, and even (from) various countries that want to check out what Alaska has to offer in terms of cannabis,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
About 100 miles north of Anchorage is the quirky tourist town of Talkeetna, long rumored to be the inspiration for the community featured in the 1990s television series \u201cNorthern Exposure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Talkeetna is the last stop for climbers hoping to make the ascent of nearby Denali, North America\u2019s tallest peak, and residents have carved out a cultural and historical tourism niche for tourists making their way to Denali National Park.<\/p>\n
Joe McAneney is co-owner of The High Expedition Co., a marijuana retail store that he plans in a historic cabin on main street and hopes to tie in branding with the city\u2019s rich mountain climbing history. He anticipates the state will consider his retail license in April.<\/p>\n
Beyond the small cabin, which once was used by National Park Service rangers, he and his partner are working with designers to build a unique consumption lounge attached to the retail store.<\/p>\n
The store plans to be open year-round to serve locals, but that can\u2019t be the only focus, McAneney said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think anyone who really wants to succeed and set themselves apart in the Alaska market really needs to focus on tourism,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Geri McCann has been involved with tourism in Talkeetna since 1973, and she is not in favor of having a marijuana retail store on the main drag.<\/p>\n
She markets Talkeetna as a cultural destination, where people can come to experience historic Alaska.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cradle that and protect that,\u201d she said. Her worry is that High Expedition customers will take their joints to a nearby riverside park and light up, even though smoking pot in public is illegal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to change Talkeetna. Do we want that change?\u201d McCann said.<\/p>\n
Alaska Marijuana Control Board member Loren Jones of Juneau believes operators expecting to make good money off tourists are being unrealistic. He said so many states have legal marijuana now, it\u2019s silly to think people would take a cruise to Alaska just to get pot.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen a Disney ship comes in with families, I don\u2019t think they\u2019re going to be running out to consume marijuana instead of whale watching or fishing,\u201d said Jones, adding he didn\u2019t know how he was going to vote on onsite consumption.<\/p>\n
Another member of the five-man regulatory board is Fairbanks resident Brandon Emmett, who has advocated for onsite consumption since voters approved marijuana in 2014.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this gets voted down, I think we have done a disservice to the taxpayers in Alaska because we\u2019ve taken so much time hashing out the issue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Back in Juneau, the Barrett brothers have plans to build a consumption lounge. They believe their customers and the people who travel on cruise ships \u2014 mainly baby boomers \u2014 are the same demographic.<\/p>\n
They know what their patrons want: pot like Quantum Kush, which at 26.2 percent THC has the highest potency in Alaska, or no-potency weed for medicinal purposes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey want to get really high, or they don\u2019t want to get high at all,\u201d James Barrett said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
JUNEAU \u2014 Alaska brothers James and Giono Barrett have a dream: that some of the scores of cruise ship passengers who crowd the streets of the state capital each summer will one day use their shore excursions to kick back and light up a joint in a pot store\u2019s lounge. The Barretts own Juneau\u2019s first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-30116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30116\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30116"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=30116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}