At 1 pm this afternoon Alaskan Republican leaders met to launch a coalition in support of Ballot Measure 2, the initiative to regulate and tax marijuana.
Alaskan Republican Party District Chairman Bruce Schlute stated “Marijuana prohibition has failed to curb marijuana use and has, instead, created an entire class of criminals from otherwise law-abiding citizens and ruined countless lives in the process. We spend millions of dollars annually to arrest and prosecute Alaskans, all over the use of a natural product which is objectively less harmful than alcohol. Alaska already has a thriving multi-million dollar marijuana industry, yet there is no regulation at all, no guidelines for product packaging or labeling, no quality control, and no system in place to limit availability to minors.”
Some opponents of the initiative worry it’s full repercussions haven’t been seen in other states yet, and during a previous interview, Rep. Kurt Olson (R, Dist 30) told us he would vote no on the measure.
Rep. Olson: “My personal feeling is we need to wait at least two years to see how Washington and Colorado are doing, right now they are running into a tremendous amount of snags, one of which is what do you do with the cash, they are not allowed to take credit cards and so they have piles of cash, I think there’s been a few strong armed robberies so far because you have to take it physically to the bank and deposit it. The federal government has not changed their laws yet so those states could be in violation of federal statutes, so I think we need to let the kinks get out of it in the other states and more importantly we have no way to test for impaired driving right now other than a blood test.”
Ballot Measure 2 will be voted on in the November 4 elections.