Marijuana regulators have tabled until June action on draft rules for allowing people to consume marijuana in authorized retail stores in Alaska.
Erika McConnell, the director of the Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office, had recommended that the Marijuana Control Board put the draft regulations out for public comment.
But the board unanimously opted to wait until it was back to full strength to even have any further discussion on the matter. The board is down one member after Travis Welch resigned from the public safety seat last month.
The delay hasn’t deterred certain retail shop owners who have requested consideration for onsite consumption in their initial license applications.
“The longer they wait, the longer it’s going to take us to get up and running,” said Lou Weaver, owner of AK Slow Burn Cannabis Outlet. “So yeah, it’s a direct impact.”
“Sooner or later it will be pushed through,” he said, “and when it does, I will do the build-out necessary to accommodate whatever they’re going to require for that facility.”
Regulators have been mulling on-site use for several years, adopting rules in late 2015 to allow for people to use marijuana at authorized stores but never finalizing how that would work.
