Some communities investigating local option to ban marijuana

Though the final count is still pending, unofficial results show Alaskans voting “yes” to legalizing marijuana in last week’s election. But the road to a legal and regulated marijuana market is months away, and communities who still want to keep the divisive drug out are looking at doing so the same way many currently ban alcohol: the local option.

Unalakleet was one of several rural communities that said “no” to ballot measure 2. A village of fewer than 700 residents, 53 percent voted against legalizing marijuana.

“Our community is family oriented. We care for our children and we don’t want the exposure [to] marijuana. Life is hard enough as it is, and we don’t need a … people just don’t need another problem. It’s not a good scene,” says Joel Oyoumick, a pastor at the Unalakleet Covenant Church.

Oyoumick says residents were dismayed to see ballot measure 2 succeed—even as it found strong support in rural areas, more so than it did statewide. In the Norton Sound neighborhood, it passed with a strong 57 percent “yes” vote—significantly better than the 52 percent “yes” votes across the state

But Unalakleet is one of many communities across Alaska that currently keeps alcohol out by using the local option … and it’s something that some are considering when it comes to keeping marijuana out, too.

Cynthia Franklin is the director of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, the group tasked with setting up Alaska’s laws for growing, selling, and buying marijuana—just as it does now for alcohol.

“There’s several options to local option, right? The way that alcohol is regulated, the local options range from a complete ban of alcohol to a damp community to a wet community,” Franklin says.

But while the local option allows for communities to completely ban the sale and importation of alcohol, that won’t be possible with the new marijuana laws. Franklin—who was a prosecutor before heading up the ABC board—says Alaska’s courts ruled back in 1975 that possessing small amounts of marijuana is protected in the state constitution.

“The Supreme Court in Ravin versus Alaska said that every Alaskan, wherever they live in Alaska, has a constitutional right of privacy in possession of up to 4 ounces of marijuana in their own home,” Franklin says. “So it’s not possible for a local community to completely ban possession of marijuana.”

But each community, town, or city could hold a vote to put in place “local option” laws forbidding *other parts of the legal marijuana business—including banning the sale, cultivation, or importation of the drug, even if it was legally bought elsewhere in the state.

Even strong advocates for legalizing marijuana—like Taylor Bickford, the public spokesperson for the Ballot Measure 2 effort—says leaving the decision up to locals was part of the plan all along.

“Communities throughout the state will have the option of banning the commercial marijuana industry, if that’s what they choose to do,” Bickford says. “That was the point of Ballot Measure 2, was to end prohibition and put decision making power back in the hands of local communities.”

Franklin with the ABC Board says the state’s marijuana laws are still taking shape. From the day the election is officially certified—likely near the end of the month—the board will have nine months to craft a full regulatory system before the first legal marijuana sales take place. Franklin says there’s some freedom to that process, but any laws will have to stay true to what voters approved on the ballot.

“We’re walking a tightrope, because the idea is to find a place where you write regulations that take into account public safety and public health, and some control measures, at the same time without violating the intent of the initiative,” Franklin says.

But Joel Oyoumick—the pastor in Unalakleet—says, regardless of local option or state legalization—he and others are wary of legal pot in their community.

“We don’t like the effects of anything illegal. It’s still federally illegal,” Oyoumick says. “Just because the state’s approved it is not … it’s not right.”

Franklin says it will be up to communities in the coming months to organize their own votes on weather or not they’ll use the local option to keep marijuana on the legal blacklist.

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