What is public? A Soldotna City Council work session explored the topic yesterday afternoon.
If you put an open invitation to a pot smoking party on Facebook, you’ll likely be in violation of Soldotna City Council ordinances, but if you’re just inviting friends, City Manager Mark Dixson says, “Go ahead, have fun.”
Dixson proposed mirroring most of Anchorage’s new guidelines when forming the City’s definition of where Alaskans can smoke marijuana, and which areas are classified as “public” and are off limits.
The Alcoholic Beverage Control Board loosely defined “public” as “a place to which the public or a substantial group of persons has access.”
Dixson: “The only benefit would be that our definition contains more descriptors of what ‘in public’ is as it relates to the City of Soldotna, but the bottom line is both definitions would be acceptable.”
Getting into the finer details, that means your private business is off limits during business hours but after hours it’s no longer a public place. A private waterfront yard is ok for smoking, but if your toes are in the river you’re in a public park and that joint better be extinguished.
The one area Dixson suggested varying from Anchorage’s ordinance was when it comes to jails, since there are no jails in Soldotna.
The City must decide whether to stay with the state regulations, the past of least resistance, or narrow the definitions and give Chief of Police Peter Mlynarik more guidance, but he said his officers already have a good gauge of where marijuana should and shouldn’t be smoked…
Chief Mlynarik: “You have to look at every one on its own merits and see if you would consider that public or not, knowing that if you do cite someone they have the right to defend themselves and you have to make sure that the enforcement action you take is going to be proper. You have to look at it and see all the circumstances involved.”
Mlynarik said there have been no citations so far.
Councilor Keith Baxter favored waiting until the State drills down on its own permanent regulations, but Dixson said it’s likely the State regulations will change several times over the coming months.
The ordinance will be picked up again tomorrow at 6pm during the regular City Council meeting.
The ABC Board regulations were implemented as an emergency last-minute response on February 24 and they expire June 23. In the meantime, a public hearing on the regulations will be held April 9 from 9-10am.
