It's good to see our newly elected governor, Bill Walker, back away from his proposal to delay regulating commercial marijuana in Alaska. Somewhere along the line, politicians started seeing themselves as our leaders, rather than our representatives. We, the voters, elected Bill Walker to lead Alaska's administration and enforce our laws; we didn't send him to Juneau to lead us. He should know that no real Alaskan is going to be led anywhere.
Like it or not, the people have spoken and directed him, as our governor, to implement our new marijuana law, the new marijuana law that garnered more votes than he did. Long before Walker knew whether or not he would be our next governor, he knew legal marijuana was the new law of the land in Alaska. And he knew that if he won, he would have to implement that law.
It might actually be nice to have a little more time to draft regulations for commercial marijuana, just to make sure we get it right. Already, Outside interests are moving in to take advantage of our new law. Our former senator, Mike Gravel, is bringing Big Marijuana up from California, and a new TV reality show based in Sitka featuring growers from the upper Midwest is in the works. Interstate commerce can't be more than a decade away. We need to ensure Alaskans aren't pushed aside. But after 40 years of repeated attempts to circumvent our state Constitution, it is hard to trust our state government when it comes to marijuana.
It's obvious that even though the people have spoken, there are lawmakers who feel so strongly against marijuana that they are willing to subvert the spirit of the law, if not the law itself. This shouldn't be much of a surprise to pot smokers. State troopers and city police have been doing it since 1975, when our Alaska Supreme Court ruled that Alaskans have a right to privacy when it comes to marijuana. And in response, beginning with their first toke, Alaska's marijuana users have been doing it too.
The regulation of marijuana is going to be done in a very hostile environment. As Anchorage Assembly member and retired Anchorage police lieutenant Paul Honeman said just before he voted to ban commercial marijuana in Anchorage, we could end up with state-run stores. Except for our Supreme Court, the state of Alaska has never been anything but adversarial toward marijuana. Both Walker and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott spoke out against the legalization of marijuana during their campaigns. And Walker did reportedly joke with members of the Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce that he wondered if he could delay implementing the new law for another four years.
There's no way to know how organized and coordinated the opposition is. It's likely they are more so than we are: we, the would-be champions of the new law. They have been able to operate in daylight and have been free, though not necessarily obliged, to act in the open. Plus, they still have the law on their side.
By necessity, by virtue of being outlaws, Alaskans who use marijuana have been forced to operate behind a veil of smoke, utilizing a fairly efficient and highly decentralized distribution network that isn't necessarily sympathetic to legalized marijuana. There are a lot of people, especially those in the black market, who have a significant financial interest in marijuana's continued prohibition and have a lot to lose with legalization. Not a lot of them are going to help, and from some we wouldn't even want help. Some of them may even intentionally sabotage efforts to get a fair set of regulations.
Estimates are difficult to make about an illegal market, but using the Marijuana Policy Project's market estimate of 17.5 metric tons or 617,295 ounces, the black market in Alaska is currently worth more than $197 million a year, based on the current street price of $40 for an eighth of an ounce.
It is very likely that the bulk of the marijuana consumed in Alaska is grown here as well. Given the powerful, antagonistic stance of many state lawmakers, though, Alaska's marijuana growers don't have any reason to expect they will be welcomed into the fold. We can't let the state and the opposition play into the hands of black-marketers. Somehow, we need to bring our local Alaska growers into the legal market even though their art used to be considered illegal. Alaska's micro-growers have a reputation for producing some of the highest quality smoke in the world. They, as producers, and we, as consumers, need to be allowed to capitalize on and benefit from that well-deserved distinction.
We Alaskans are going have to stay engaged and vigilant if we are going to enjoy the freedoms we voted for ourselves. First, the Anchorage Assembly entertains an ordinance to ban commercial cannabis, and then Gov. Walker suggests regulators will need more time.
These are just the first shots to be fired. How hard the coming battle will be depends how hard we can fight. There are a lot of impassioned and powerful people out there who are doing all they can to derail legalized marijuana in Alaska.
We supporters are going to have to be bold and audacious, loud and visible. But we're also going to have to be above-board, above reproach and right in every respect. Pot smokers were only a fraction of the voters who supported Ballot Measure 2, and we still need continued support from the wide spectrum of Alaskans who voted for it, including libertarian-minded conservatives. Without follow-through, we will end up with emboldened black marketers and law enforcement, and with Honeman's suggested state-run stores that'll have to be stocked with Big Marijuana.
Keith Searles is a 40-year Alaska resident, the former editor of two Alaska weekly newspapers and he actually smoked marijuana with real hippies in the early 1970s. He currently writes the Alaska-based marijuana blog www.DenaliSmoke.com.
The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com.