Alaska’s fastest-growing municipality will decide Tuesday whether to ban commercial marijuana enterprises.
Matanuska-Susitna Borough residents will consider a ballot proposition to prohibit cannabis sales, cultivation and testing.
Former Mayor Larry DeVilbiss says borough voters opposed the 2014 state ballot measure that legalized recreational marijuana.
He says it’s arrogant to assume that commercial marijuana should come into a community that voted against the state measure, and that residents are concerned about raising children in an environment legitimizing marijuana.
Prohibition opponents say a regulated marijuana market will be safer than current unregulated sales.
Caleb Saunders says unregulated sellers are not checking IDs of teenagers seeking pot. And he says regulated sales would provide the state and borough new, needed revenue.
