(SitNews) Anchorage, Alaska - Today, the Alaska Senate and House convened a joint Judiciary Committee hearing on the state of Alaska's fledgling marijuana industry. The focus was on the status of implementation and regulations of Alaska's commercial marijuana industry, which was legalized when Ballot Measure 2 was affirmed by 53 percent of voters in the 2014 general election.

"I applaud the Alcohol and Marijuana Compliance Office (AMCO) on the work completed to date," said Sen. Lesil McGuire (R-Anchorage), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "It is difficult to develop regulations from scratch with so many complex facets involved."

"I am pleased to see progress in moving the initiative forward," said Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux (R-Anchorage), chair of the House Judiciary Committee. "However, I am concerned that lack of staffing may be causing problems that may put unnecessary obstacles in the path of fledgling businesses and Alaskan entrepreneurs, thus impeding the will of the voters who passed the initiative."

Ballot Measure 2 set timelines for the creation and adoption of regulations designed to govern the commercial activities of licensed marijuana businesses. In 2015 the Alaska State Legislature created the Marijuana Control Board (MCB) to meet the timelines of the ballot measure. The final regulations were adopted by the Board on February 21, 2016.

Invited testimony came from: Cynthia Franklin, Executive Director of the MCB; Peter Mlynarik, Chair of the MCB; Ken Alper, Director of the Division of Taxes; Brandon Spanos, Deputy Director of the Division of Taxes; Patrice Walsh, Division of Banking and Securities; Jahna Lindemuth, Attorney General; Jana Welzing, Attorney; and Bruce Shulte, Former Chair of the MCB.

"I am hopeful we can all work together to insure the Marijuana Control Board has the support it needs to smoothly get this industry off the ground," said Rep. LeDoux.

"The state still has a lot of work to do on commercial marijuana, and my sincere hope is that we find a way to uphold the will of the voters who passed Ballot Measure 2," said Sen. McGuire.

Reporting & Editing by Mary Kauffman, SitNews

Source of News:

Alaska Senate Majority
www.akleg.gov

 

Representations of fact and opinions in comments posted are solely those of the individual posters and do not represent the opinions of Sitnews.

SitNews ©2016
Stories In The News
Ketchikan, Alaska

Articles & photographs that appear in SitNews may be protected by copyright and may not be reprinted without written permission from and payment of any required fees to the proper sources. E-mail your news & photos to editor@sitnews.us Photographers choosing to submit photographs for publication to SitNews are in doing so granting their permission for publication and for archiving. SitNews does not sell photographs. All requests for purchasing a photograph will be emailed to the photographer.