Subscriptions to the Chilkat Valley News were delayed this week due to an advertisement in the newspaper for a new marijuana dispensary. The newspaper decided to delay mailing the current issue to subscribers after the Haines Post Office warned that the ad could cause problems because marijuana is still illegal federally.
The new marijuana dispensary Winter Greens placed an ad in the July 12 issue of the Chilkat Valley News, announcing the opening of the shop. The ad takes up roughly a quarter of the back page with a short message thanking supporters and encouraging people to stop by.
At the bottom, there is a gray box containing a disclaimer about the risks of marijuana and precautions about who should and shouldn’t use it. The language comes from the Alaska Marijuana Control Board and must be included in all promotional materials for marijuana dispensaries across the state.
According to Jasmine Taylor, the ad manager of the newspaper, the main legal concern that Winter Greens had when placing the ad was to make sure this disclaimer was included.
Nothing about the advertisement itself violates Alaska laws.
Taylor said when the papers were dropped off at the post office, the postmaster looked through a copy and informed the newspaper that the advertisement on the back could be an issue.
According to Dawn Peppinger, the U.S. Postal Service’s manager of marketing for the Alaska District, the publication ran into problems at the federal level.
“Basically advertisements for marijuana in the mail may be a violation of federal law,” Peppinger said. “Marijuana, while it may be recognized as legal in the state, it is not recognized as legal federally in that it is still considered a controlled substance. So it falls under the laws of the Controlled Substance Act.”
The act makes it a federal crime to place an ad in any publication for the purpose of seeking, buying or distributing a controlled substance.
In a 2015 memo distributed in Oregon, another state where recreational marijuana use is legal, the U.S. Postal Service explained that this rule on marijuana advertisements applies to mail.
When asked if the paper plans to run marijuana-related advertisements in the future, Taylor said she would like Winter Greens to be able to advertise because the Chilkat Valley News wants to help promote small businesses in Haines and Skagway. The problem is that the paper does rely on the post office for distribution to subscribers.
So how did the Chilkat Valley News deal with a stack of newspapers that couldn’t be mailed? Taylor said that the paper’s staff used scissors to cut the advertisement from the back pages of the copies they needed to mail out of town.
The current issue can be found in stores around Haines with the ad for Winter Greens included. Local subscribers can pick up a copy from the Chilkat Valley News office.
