Congressman Don Young today spoke at the Kenai/Soldotna joint chamber luncheon and after giving a brief speech on the problems he sees with the federal government, he opened the floor to questions from the public.
One such question came from KPBSD Superintendent Dr. Steve Atwater, who asked Congressman Young if he was able to offer any support in the push back against the legalization of recreational use of marijuana in the State of Alaska.
Dr. Atwater: “I view the legalization of marijuana in Alaska as a mistake, I don’t think it will be healthy for our students and I was curious whether Congressman Young would want to have some support for the repeal of that or the voting down of that and his view is that the state has the right to do that and I agree with that I was just curious whether there was a role the Federal Government to encourage student safety, student health that kind of thing to perhaps get the word out that its a bad idea.”
Congressman Young’s response was that he is not in favor of the legalization of marijuana in Alaska, however must stand firm in his stance of letting the state decide for themselves without federal involvement.
Rep. Young: “I’ve not said I’m against it, I’m just not in favor of it but the reality is that’s up to the state, its not a government issue and we have to make sure you can’t pick and choose about well I don’t want the federal government here but I want them to do this, that’s the wrong way to approach this issue as far as states right’s and I’m a big states right’s person.
We also asked Young how he felt about LNG expansion across Alaska and the possibility of running a pipeline from the North Slope, to Nikiski.
Rep. Young: “I want to be optimistic, but its hard to be when we’ve been talking about a pipeline for 65 years. We became a state for gas, Bill Snedden tried to get gas into Fairbanks and that was all federal land and we were a territory and nobody wanted to do it and we still haven’t built the pipeline. I do think its a higher possibility now and it will have to be tide water and that’s where Nikiski comes in.”