Alaska’s marijuana laws keep getting greener

Now you can stay warm and get high in Alaska

Maybe it’s the snowshoes but Alaska keeps leaving giant footprints with its approach to marijuana. Thanks to a constitutional guarantee to privacy Alaskan pot-smokers enjoyed a relatively lax legal environment for decades. In 2014 Alaskans voted in favor of full legalization for recreational and commercial marijuana. Since then the 49th State has been continuously and nigh-consistently breaking ground with its marijuana policies.

Marijuana’s trajectory in Alaska is not as linear as it may seem. The state does lean heavily conservative and the legalization vote was not an overwhelming victory. After legalization the political path for pot was largely left to local communities to decide; some rejected a marijuana industry entirely and the votes were close in most of the cities and towns that ultimately chose to permit marijuana businesses.

Alaska’s politicians are decidedly split in how the government should be treating marijuana and the businesses that sell it. It would seem that Alaska Governor Mike J. Dunleavy is no friend of the marijuana industry. His choice for a vacancy on the state Marijuana Control Board was a long-time and vocal anti-marijuana activist and was involved in a recent effort to ban marijuana businesses in Fairbanks. The state Legislature ultimately rejected the nominee but the fact that it was by only a single vote demonstrates that Alaska’s political attitude towards cannabis and…