Alaskan cannabis business owners are waiting on confirmation of the prohibitionist movement’s death or revival as three municipalities are set to vote on cannabis business bans on Oct. 3.
The city of Fairbanks, the borough of North Star and the Kenai peninsula all have cannabis business prohibition measures on their local ballots just three years after Alaska first legalized adult-use in 2014. Proponents of the measures are claiming cannabis businesses are a detriment to neighborhoods by taking up land in “general use” zoned areas that could otherwise be used for residential structures, bring unpleasant odors and will attract crime. (According to FBI data, all forms of crime in Alaska have gone down since 2014.)
“There’s a lot going on with this business, it being so young. It’s frustrating I even have to worry about this,” Daniel Peters, owner of Goodsinse in Fairbanks, said in an interview with the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
UPDATE: Early Numbers Favor Keeping Marijuana Shops Open in Some Alaska Communities
In an interview with the Associated Press, Greatland Ganja owner Leif Abel, whose business in Kasilof on the Kenai Peninsula is at risk of being shut down, said if any of these measures pass, it could embolden the state’s prohibitionist movement. Despite that, he is confident the outcome will be positive for the cannabis industry.
“This is the last dying throes of prohibition,” he said, adding: “Even if some of these folks don't admit it to themselves ... the real reason that they still want to prohibit marijuana is they don't want to accept a certain segment of society in the mainstream.”
The bans would only affect licensed businesses in those municipalities, meaning home grows and personal use would still be allowed. If any measure passes, cannabis businesses would have 90 days to close up shop.
