Anchorage could soon join a handful of other communities in Alaska that allow people to smoke marijuana at licensed cafes.
The Anchorage Assembly is set to vote on an ordinance Tuesday night that would legalize the purchase and smoking of marijuana at businesses that receive onsite consumption endorsements from the city and state.
East Anchorage Assembly member George Martinez introduced the ordinance. He said it will bring the city closer to Alaskans’ intentions when they voted to allow recreational marijuana in 2014.
“The intent of the voter from the actual binding vote was, in all of its forms, it's permissible for adults over 21 to have access to it,” Martinez said. “That's the vote that the voters had.”
The businesses would need to take steps to properly ventilate the smoke
, in keeping with Anchorage’s local smoke-free regulations. Martinez said he doesn’t anticipate pot cafes popping up quickly.
“The investments of the ventilation systems are quite high,” Martinez said. “And we hear about this all the time when it deals with the odor of the grows and stuff, and this is a higher level of toxic removal, of toxin removal.”
This isn’t the first time the question has come up in Anchorage. In 2020, Anchorage voters rejected a ballot measure that would’ve allowed for onsite consumption by a nearly 2-to-1 margin.
However, the state Marijuana Control Board enacted a change this year to allow businesses that qualify for onsite consumption of marijuana products to allow for smoking. The proposed ordinance would bring the city’s code up-to-date, Martinez said.
“The intent here is simply to align to the original intent of where the state is now,” Martinez said. “And so the state has allowed marijuana consumption in all of its forms, up through inhalation.”
Other Alaska communities that have legalized onsite consumption include Fairbanks, Juneau and Ketchikan. State officials say there are five licensed facilities for onsite consumption in Alaska, including two in Fairbanks, and one each in Seward, Soldotna and Ketchikan.
This story has been corrected to reflect that there are five marijuana facilities licensed for onsite consumption in Alaska.
