Cannabis business in Alaska

So what kind of cannabis business do you want to run.
You don't have to give up all of your trade secrets here, I just think that it is important for those of us looking to get into this business to make friends with others looking to get into this business. We are all going to need each other in some form or fashion in order to be successful.

On November 4, 2014, Alaskans voted to end decades of harmful and ineffective marijuana prohibition, and replace it with a system in which marijuana is taxed and regulated like alcohol.

Measure 2 removes penalties for adults 21 and older who possess, use, and grow a limited amount of marijuana. It tasks the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board with regulating and licensing marijuana producers, wholesalers, processors, and retailers. It also gives the legislature the authority to create a new Marijuana Control Board at any time to assume such power, duties, and responsibilities related to marijuana regulation.

The regulations of this measures have provisions for:

• Marijuana cultivation facilities - who can cultivate marijuana for wholesale.
• Marijuana product manufacturing facilities - who can produce marijuana extracts and products.
• Marijuana testing facilities - will test marijuana and marijuana products for quality control before being sold to consumers.
• Marijuana retail stores - will be allowed to sell marijuana and related items to individuals 21 and older.

Measure 2 will take effect 90 days after being certified by the lieutenant governor. The Alaska Division of Elections anticipates certification will be completed between November 22 and 29. Rules for marijuana establishments must be drafted within nine months after the effective date. Typically, they take all of the allotted time to complete their regulations, so that will put us into September 2015 before you can apply for a license.

Let's hear your ideas folks, and let's make some friends.

I'm in and I like to fish and live in tents too

Personally I'm wanting to run a very small grow operation, I have high hopes that the state will have some sort of licensing for the single guy operation. I'm looking to create more of a retirement job for myself then to run some sort of multimillion dollar business. I know that there will be plenty of headaches even with a small business, I just don't want something so large that if things don't go well I can't afford to keep operating or lose all my life savings like some of those poor folks in Washington state.

Cuttdogg7 said:

Personally I'm wanting to run a very small grow operation, I have high hopes that the state will have some sort of licensing for the single guy operation.

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Please read the 3rd draft of the regulations. Chapter 306. Regulation of Marijuana Industry There seems not to be an answer for your question. It has a licence for limited cultivator but does not give specifics.

I'm going down to the courthouse today to attend the regulation meeting for today and tomorrow. So I better understand the regulations and if they have public commentary open Id like to add my input.

GrowerGoneWild said:

Please read the 3rd draft of the regulations. Chapter 306. Regulation of Marijuana Industry There seems not to be an answer for your question. It has a licence for limited cultivator but does not give specifics.

I'm going down to the courthouse today to attend the regulation meeting for today and tomorrow. So I better understand the regulations and if they have public commentary open Id like to add my input.

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Thank you for your input their grower, I have been keeping up myself at. https://www.commerce.alaska.gov/web/abc.
The limited cultivator is probably the type of license that I will be looking for. I was going to contact legal representation to find out exactly what these laws mean and what they entail. Let me know if you learn anything with a visit to the courthouse. If you find that the courthouse is a Dead end for information there is a consulting firm that I'm going to be using that may be helpful to you as well.
(green zip.com)
For making public comment you can use that link above. They except comment through email or mail and only within certain time frames.

Cuttdogg7 said:

Thank you for your input their grower, I have been keeping up myself at. https://www.commerce.alaska.gov/web/abc.
The limited cultivator is probably the type of license that I will be looking for. I was going to contact legal representation to find out exactly what these laws mean and what they entail. Let me know if you learn anything with a visit to the courthouse. If you find that the courthouse is a Dead end for information there is a consulting firm that I'm going to be using that may be helpful to you as well.
(green zip.com)
For making public comment you can use that link above. They except comment through email or mail and only within certain time frames.

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After 2 days of working on the draft by the MJ and ABC board they are still in draft they did manage to get through section one.

Ill throw you a few nuggets tho'..

3 AAC 306.410. Limited marijuana cultivation facility license: privileges and prohibited acts. (See draft 3)

I will mention a few things that the board mentioned that is not stated in the rules. I will state that I am not a lawyer. It is up to you to verify and understand the rules.

-The 500 square foot rule only applies to active growing area, it does not include hallways, closets, etc. So the square of 500 will give you an area of roughly 22.3 ft x 22.3ft

-The board does not want outside inventors to have a controlling interest of the licence. If you read the DOJ cole memo the attorney general is trying to keep MJ within state lines. Alaska MJ is for intrastate commerce and not to be diverted to other states, that would fall under interstate trade and would bring the feds a knocking.

I mistakenly said the courthouse, for the MJ board. My bad, it took place in the Atwood building.

As far as public commentary, I submitted mine early and it showed up on the website in the public comments.. The board does read the random comment based on how good it is .. if you do submit a comment make sure you submit as early as possible AND mention what rule you want to modify.. like AAC 306.410 because they have to take the comment and catagorize it for the board to review.

Lastly.. be careful not to get caught for growing right now. One of the amendments they made to section one was to deny "bootleggers" or those operating without license. Clubs, delivery services, grow ops are now considered operating without a license. Stay within the legal limits because the board really is trying hard to legalize, and you will be rewarded.

Good to see an Alaskan law thread up. Good information as I've been trying to keep upto date on the progression of the legalization of mj.

i have read somewhere it going to be 5,000 to obtain a license

akmatanuska said:

Good to see an Alaskan law thread up. Good information as I've been trying to keep upto date on the progression of the legalization of mj.

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Its been busy for me, I also attended the MOA assembly meeting, they had a few issues to pick at with containers, etc..
and yesterday I attended the Alaska Cannabis Growers discussion on set 3 of the regulations.

On the 31 and 1st they will be discussing the 3rd draft. I do believe they will be doing a teleconference at the frontier building with the MCB, so... get your comments in ASAP on the 3rd draft.

Not leading you what to do. But take a look at the limited cultivation rules, I think the license fees should be different, for example, they should be higher for bigger grows with the "unlimited" square footage they are allowed vs the limited cultivation licence. OR at least pay proportional fees for the grow..

For example, a 500 square foot licence will have to pay 1000 per year. So thats 2 dollars a square foot per year to operate.

However a "unlimited" cultivation will have no limits on how big the grow is.. Imagine for a second they get a light depro greenhouse going in the valley with 10000 square foot, and they only play a 5K fee..

The MCB operates on a limited budget, this could be a way to fund it with the mega grows.

c4no said:

i have read somewhere it going to be 5,000 to obtain a license

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Large scale cultivation sites will have to pay a 5000 licence fee, annually.. They have no limit on growing area.

Limited cultivation sites with a max of 500 sq ft will have to pay 1000 licence fee annually..

Please read the 3rd set, of regulations. It will have many answers.

I agree with you growergonewild on the fact that they should look a little deeper into the annual cost of the license.
Beings we are on the discussion of cost of operation, let's not forget about the monthly costs of security, tracking systems, taxes and power etc. These costs are going to be quite high and with a 500 square-foot license the thousand dollar annual fee could be a breaking point.

One thing I would've liked to of seen for the limited license in addition to the 500 square-foot rule, is a plant limit for summertime activities such as outdoor and greenhouse growing.

Cuttdogg7 said:

One thing I would've liked to of seen for the limited license in addition to the 500 square-foot rule, is a plant limit for summertime activities such as outdoor and greenhouse growing.

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Submit your comments, to the MCB.. I for one agree, there should be allowances for outdoor production/greenhouse production.

Quick question for you grower gone wild, have you seen anywhere yet where it defines what the 500 ft.² grow space will entail, is it total gross Space or can your nursery and vegetation room be separate from that.

Cuttdogg7 said:

Quick question for you grower gone wild, have you seen anywhere yet where it defines what the 500 ft.² grow space will entail, is it total gross Space or can your nursery and vegetation room be separate from that.

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Typed verbatim from the draft.. However please reference the original document.
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3. AAC 306.410. Limited Marijuana cultivation facility license: privileges and prohibited acts.

(a) A licenced limited cultivation facility is authorized to
(1)propagate, culture, harvest, and prepare marijuana for sale in a marijuana cultivation facility with less than 500 square feet under cultivation.

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So "under cultivation" is the key point, and it was communicated from Cynthia Franklin from the ABC to the MCB that that was the active cultivation area.. for example. You live in a house and you are using a garage to grow, it only includes the active grow area, the 500sq ft. Not the hallways, bathrooms.. etc.. Only the canopy.

So lets explore this rule..

-Drying and curing area is not included because its not active cultivation.
-Storage area, like dirt bins etc does not mean its a cultivation area.
-It does not say anything about multiple areas.. like a 5x5 here an a 5x5 there, there is no rule for that, multiple tents.. so on and so forth
-Your nursery would be part of your active cultivation area.

It does have a clear definition of total area measured.

I believe it would be ideal to clearly measure and mark out the area and post appropriate signage showing surface area of say a flower room and one for the nursery. To show you are in compliance.

Thats how im going to do it.

Heres what I submitted to the MCB.. Remember the deadline is soon, get your comments in ASAP.
the more comments directed to a specific item the more likely it is to change. Your voice is very important
in this process.. Remember all comments will be recorded for public record.

=========================

This first comment is from the 2nd set, I am not sure if its still available for public comment, however I will
submit this.

3 AAC 306.095. Fees, refund and forfeiture. (a) The non-refundable application fee
for a new marijuana establishment license or an application to transfer a license to another
person is $1000.

(d) The annual license fee, to be paid with each application for a new marijuana
establishment facility license and each license renewal application is
(1) for a marijuana retailer license, $5000;
(2) for a limited marijuana cultivation facility license, $1000;
(3) for a marijuana cultivation facility license, $5000;
(4) for a marijuana cultivator’s broker license, $5000;
(5) for a marijuana extract only manufacturing facility license, $1000;
(6) for a marijuana product manufacturing facility license, $5000;
(7) for a marijuana testing facility license, $1000.

Comment: I disagree with this fee structure, a standard marijuana cultivation facility fees should be
relative to the size of planned cultivation. You are giving the larger farm an advantage. The larger
farm should pay more based on square footage. In addition this would create more revenue for the MCB.

-------------------------------------------------------------
Comments on set 3


3 AAC 306.410. Limited marijuana cultivation facility license: privileges and
prohibited acts. (a) A licensed limited cultivation facility is authorized to
(1) propagate, cultivate, harvest, and prepare marijuana for sale in a marijuana
cultivation facility with less than 500 square feet under cultivation;


Comment: Be more specific to define a 500 square foot growing area. There seems to be alot of
confusion from the public. When you say "under cultivation".. does this also include plants being
propagated?, like clones.. etc. as part of a square footage calcuation? It seems obvious but the
question keeps getting asked.


3 AAC 306.455. Required laboratory testing. (a) Except as provided in (d) of this
section, a marijuana cultivation facility shall provide samples of marijuana produced at the
facility to a marijuana testing facility, and may not sell or transport any marijuana until all
laboratory testing required by 3 AAC 306.645 has been completed.
(a) To comply with (a) of this section, a marijuana cultivation facility shall
(1) collect a random, homogenous sample for testing by segregating harvested
marijuana into batches of individual strains of bud and flower, then selecting a random sample
from each batch in an amount required by the marijuana testing facility;

Comment:This does seem to reference finished flowers or bud, however. I think its too inclusive to
say "and, may not sell or transport any marijuana".. Please keep in mind that cannabis comes in many
forms and testing clones or seeds should be excluded. These items are not intended to be consumed
therefore they should be exempt from testing..

I'm headed back but this time to homestead land in Healy. It's already owned and off-the-grid and we already have 300 watts (Wow right?) of solar panel power. We are adding 5K of solar in March. Water at the back of the property. I was never messed with by cops there before it was legal so I really don't expect much more than some initial confusion.

I was in the Mat-Su before with electricity and all the good things. Grew some 1 hitter quitter in hiding. This should be righteous. Two cabins and one is already fitted and topped out. Will kill squirrels and repair what the little bastards did to the 2nd one starting 1 March! See ya soon!

GrowerGoneWild said:

Please read the 3rd draft of the regulations. Chapter 306. Regulation of Marijuana Industry There seems not to be an answer for your question. It has a licence for limited cultivator but does not give specifics.

I'm going down to the courthouse today to attend the regulation meeting for today and tomorrow. So I better understand the regulations and if they have public commentary open Id like to add my input.

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I'm stuck in New Mexico helping a sick friend out. I appreciate your attention to these matters more than I can say. Normally I would go to anything involving the issue anywhere in the state. Thanks for the updates.

hotrodharley said:

I'm stuck in New Mexico helping a sick friend out. I appreciate your attention to these matters more than I can say. Normally I would go to anything involving the issue anywhere in the state. Thanks for the updates.

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The online public comment is a very powerful tool. They have not accepted much public testimonial in the last few sessions. So if you want to get involved please submit your comments in the draft section.

The MOA was a more accepting of public testimonial than the MCB.. The MOA made a few modifications to the law as far as underaged buying.