How did a red state like Alaska legalize marijuana?

In 2014, the year that Alaska voters legalized recreational marijuana, I was a legislative staffer in the Alaska State House. I took a leave of absence later that year to manage the reelection campaign for a relatively conservative Republican in Anchorage. That year’s ballot also included Measure 2, legalizing the recreational use of marijuana.

The House district that we were running in ended up voting for pot by a significant margin and my conservative boss was vocal in support of legalization. The head of the House democratic caucus, on the other hand, was opposed.

Alaska’s a weird place.

During the campaign I spoke to countless voters. Conservatives, independents, democrats, and indifferents. I was pretty damn sure that we’d win the campaign (and we did!) but I wasn’t sold on the success of legalization. I voted for it, kind of grudgingly because it was horribly written and I knew that we’d have a lot of work to do in the legislature to make it legally legible and actually create a viable marijuana industry. (Not to brag but I was right as it took two years before we had pot shops open for business.)

Legalization has a long and complicated history in Alaska. The Alaska state…