There were cheers, hoots and completely sober discussion Thursday as the state of Alaska approved the first licenses ever awarded for a commercial marijuana business in the 49th state.
The first license came at 1:58 p.m. as the Alaska Marijuana Control Board approved a license for CannTest LLC of Anchorage to legally test commercial marijuana.
The audience at Anchorage’s Atwood Building erupted in applause after the board voted unanimously in favor of the license.
“Congratulations,” said board member Brandon Emmett. “That’s history right there, folks.”
The license isn’t just historic for Alaska — it’s historic for the United States. Every other state to legalize commercial marijuana sales has had some pre-existing system of medical marijuana dispensaries. Alaska is the first state in the country to create a system of commercial sale from scratch.
After voting in favor of CannTest’s license, the state board approved another Anchorage testing facility. It also began approving licenses for marijuana growers but did not complete its agenda before 5 p.m. The board is expected to continue work Friday.
The first approved marijuana cultivator was Rosie Creek Farm of Fairbanks. Also receiving approval was Juneau’s first cultivator, Rainforest Farms.
Thursday’s votes do not permit license recipients to grow or test immediately. Local governments have 60 days to protest a license. If no protest is made, the license is awarded.
“You’re delegating the authority to grant it if that 60-day period has a happy ending,” said Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office executive director Cynthia Franklin. “The granting is not completed until the 60-day run with no protest.”
The board is also voting on licenses with the understanding that applicants will later undergo a national criminal background check.
Such background checks were required by House Bill 75, approved by the Alaska Legislature earlier this year, but that bill has not yet reached Gov. Bill Walker and thus is not yet effective.
If the background check turns up a problem, the board has granted Franklin the ability to immediately suspend any already-issued license.
Thursday’s votes were the culmination of years of work that began when Alaska voters approved Ballot Measure No. 2 in November 2014. That ballot measure set up a timeline for the state to draft and implement regulations, then issue licenses. That timeline required the state to begin issuing licenses by May 24. It did not make the deadline, but only by two weeks.
Thursday’s votes were only the first step in the state’s planned rollout of the commercial marijuana industry. Testing labs and cultivators were given priority in the state’s licensing process. The first retail stores are not expected to be licensed until this fall, giving cultivators enough time to grow marijuana for the legal market.
The staggered timeline was intended to prevent black-market marijuana from entering the legal market.
During Thursday’s meeting, director Franklin also addressed the concerns of rural marijuana businesses regarding testing. State regulations require marijuana intended for sale to be tested for safety — no microbes, mold or harmful chemicals are allowed.
Complicating this is the fact that the Coast Guard prohibits marijuana transportation on state ferries, and the FAA places limits on marijuana transportation by air.
Franklin said Oregon’s experience has been that the FAA is not cracking down on marijuana transportation if the samples are in an itemized manifest and are biological samples intended for testing, not recreational use.
“No one from the feds has moved in,” she said of Oregon’s experience. “These transportations (to a testing lab) should not be stopped by the federal government.”
The only marijuana licenses on Thursday’s agenda but not approved by the board involved applicants in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, which has placed a moratorium on local license approval.
Until that moratorium is lifted, the state has placed a hold on all license applications coming from the Mat-Su.
