The Fairbanks North Star Borough will follow Anchorage in forming a working group to explore the legalization of marijuana in Alaska and the crafting of laws specific to local commercial regulation.
On Tuesday, the Anchorage Assembly's new Committee on Regulating and Taxing the Cultivation, Manufacture and Commercial Sale of Marijuana met briefly to outline how it will work to craft marijuana laws in Alaska's largest city.
Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Luke Hopkins said he too would form a working group to begin crafting ordinances addressing legalization to present to the borough assembly. In an interview Tuesday, Hopkins said the makeup of the body had not been finalized but that it would include community stakeholders and be led by borough Community Planning Director Christine Nelson.
Hopkins' announcement comes after a Fairbanks town hall meeting at which lawmakers heard community concerns about legalization, which Alaska voters approved in November.
"We covered the gamut on it and we will continue to cover the gamut all the way from 'heck no' to 'let's get going,'" Hopkins said. "We want to be prepared."
In Anchorage, the four-person committee, chaired by West Anchorage Assembly member Ernie Hall, will be charged with developing and recommending new municipal code regarding marijuana to the Anchorage Assembly. It was the first meeting for the group, which gave a short update on who they are and what their plans are. That includes working with the state Legislature and other rulemaking bodies to craft Anchorage marijuana laws.
Hall said the committee would host town halls next year to give the public a chance to openly discuss the issue.
They'll also work to communicate with communities in Washington and Colorado that are already ahead in plotting marijuana policy, since those states voted for legalization in 2012. Todd Sherwood and Seneca Theno, municipal attorneys who head up the civil division and prosecution section of the Anchorage's law department, will travel to Colorado in January for a conference on the effects of legalization and bring those findings back to the committee. Sherwood attended Tuesday's meeting along with Assembly attorney Julia Tucker and Assembly chair Dick Traini.
The first meeting of the group comes a week after the Anchorage Assembly heard four hours of testimony on a proposed ordinance that would have banned commercial marijuana in the municipality before legalization goes into effect at the state level. The measure failed 9-2, but numerous Assembly members noted in debate that a separate committee should be created. The two members who ultimately voted in favor of the ordinance -- Amy Demboski and Paul Honeman -- are also members of the task force. Neither attended Tuesday's meeting.
Hall said in the Tuesday meeting that the task of coming up with marijuana law wouldn't be easy, and he outlined numerous issues the city will have deal with, including testing of marijuana, zoning and conditional-use permits for marijuana-related businesses, among others.
Hall said members of the committee teleconferenced Monday with Sen. Lesil McGuire, R-Anchorage, who as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee has indicated interest in dealing with marijuana this session. Hall also noted that Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux, R-Anchorage, would work on the marijuana issue as chair of the House Judiciary Committee.
Hall said he hopes communications between the groups continue through the legislative session. What that will look like is unclear.
"The reality is (the Legislature) has more questions than answers, and we are definitely at that level ourselves," Hall said.
Pete Petersen, one of the four Assembly members on the committee, said that despite the disparate makeup of the group, they would work together. He expects intense scrutiny of public leaders as they move through the process.
"It's a very visible law passed by the people," he said. "I don't think politicians can go against the will of the people."