Assembly Issues
Marijuana
Candidate Responses
Are you receptive or resistant to marijuana businesses in Juneau?
Merrill Sanford
Candidate for Mayor
I will follow the mandate that the people have given us. I personally don’t think that it’s a good idea to do that, only because of the risk factor that increases by having something like alcohol or something like marijuana legal. There’s going to be cause and effect here with every type of drug or manipulation that we put on the market. There’s going to be a result and some of it’s going to be OK, and some of it’s going to be not so OK. So we’ll have to figure out how we’re going to pay for some of the not so good ramifications of it, and how we move forward. But the people have spoken and it will be done.
Greg Fisk
Candidate for Mayor
I’m sort of middle of the road on this. I’m really glad that we won’t be incarcerating people for simple marijuana offenses, but in my view we would have been better off with decriminalization. There’s a lot of talk about economic opportunity; I don’t think it’s going to change our budget, but there is some room for a few businesses.
Loren Jones
Candidate for District 1 Assembly
I guess I’m going to plead the Fifth on that one since I’m on the state Marijuana Control Board and we do have a set of regulations out for public hearing.
I’m going up to Anchorage for two days of meetings on those regulations. We’ll probably — at the end of that — put those back out for public hearing. So, I really think I need to keep my comments down until we get those regulations adopted in November.
What specific zoning restrictions, if any, should the city implement with regard to marijuana businesses?
Merrill Sanford
Candidate for Mayor
I, again, have to look at all the options. It’s not fair to just answer that, you know, out and out without knowing all the different options that there are. And so I would wait, and in fact, I think in just the last night or two, the planning commission had put forward a recommendation to have, I think, sales in the waterfront zoning district. So we’ll see what they produce and our own marijuana committee produces for us and then I’ll try to evaluate all of those options back and forth in my own mind.
Greg Fisk
Candidate for Mayor
There’s going to be some definite restrictions; these establishments, wherever they are, they obviously should not be near schools. But specifics about allowing them on one of the side of the street or another, those things are going to have to work through the Marijuana Committee and Planning and Zoning Commission.
Loren Jones
Candidate for District 1 Assembly
I think the city is looking at some fairly reasonable zoning issues right now related to marijuana. Under the initiative that was passed, the regulations under consideration leave those issues of place, time and manner to the local communities. I think we have to come up with some zoning. We have to make it reasonable.
There are four types of licenses that will be issued: cultivation, testing, manufacturing and retail. Those will be issued by the state Marijuana Control Board that I’m on. Where those are placed is up to the local community.
Dixie Hood
Candidate for District 2 Assembly
I think that downtown, that stores that would carry some products. I think some kind of a club situation where visitors could come and it would be like a bar, in terms of not having food service and so forth, and being limited to adults that could be available. And that would also be a source of tax revenue that would be significant for Juneau, I think.
In terms of zoning and residential areas and so forth, there’s a lot of work being done by the state and Loren Jones is on the (state marijuana control) board. And the assembly has recently extended the deadline for determining what action they would take and really making a big pitch for local decision making about that.
Jerry Nankervis
Candidate for District 2 Assembly
I think we’re going to need look at regulating them and zoning them like we would many other business. With the understanding that there’s certain aspects of this business that are different than others.
How close to the schools you can sell it, I think we need to look at limiting that just like we do alcohol. We’re going to need to look at that. And since this can also be eaten, you can put it in food items, I think that to me is the danger in this whole initiative in this legalization. My fear is it’s going to in the schools far more now. Best thing we can do is look at what Washington and what Colorado have done and try not to make mistakes where they think they’ve made mistakes.
Jason Puckett
Candidate for District 2 Assembly
Well, there’s a couple of things. First: the distance from schools or daycares. You know, that’s something they definitely have to talk about. Right now, I believe it’s either 2 or 500 feet from any type of area where children are, which is a good start. But also you have to look at the plot size. They’re talking about for grow facilities, they want D-1 only. And that’s a large plot of land for a growing facility, for a D-1. There could be some smaller D-3 or D-5 depending on where they’re located. But it really depends on the size of the grow facility.
But when it comes to retail, most of the retail honestly is going to be downtown. I think there’s going to be maybe one or two in the valley, just because the population and the amount of tourism. And as long as they’re away from the schools, I’m totally fine with that.
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