If you’re looking for a legal place outside your home to light up a joint in Anchorage, you’ll need to keep waiting.
The Anchorage Assembly last week voted to indefinitely table a measure that would have OK’d smoking at licensed cannabis dispensaries, as a majority of members expressed concern over secondhand smoke and high driving. City rules already allow for the consumption of marijuana edibles, but inhalation is banned under the city’s smoking rules, and there are currently no actively licensed consumption spots in the city.
The measure was brought forward by East Anchorage Assemblymember George Martinez, who said that he wanted to clear up a gray area in city law that makes it illegal to smoke any place other than on private property. He said it encourages people to smoke out in public, creating a nuisance and risking a ticket.
“From an economic development perspective … strengthening the industry is about making sure we have safe places to be that don’t put people in harm’s way,” he said during last week’s debate. “Legal marijuana that you can buy in the store is technically illegal to smoke in the street. The only place it’s legal to smoke your legally acquired marijuana today is on private property.”
Under state law, consuming marijuana anywhere that’s generally open to the public can land you with a ticket. In 2019, the Alaska Marijuana Control Board approved regulations that opened the door for on-site consumption. While a handful of stores outside of Anchorage have since opened for on-site consumption after getting a special endorsement, most have not gone through the additional hoops to allow smoking.
In Anchorage, a half-dozen dispensaries have started the process of getting an on-site consumption endorsement, but they will have to stick to edibles and infused beverages.
In defense of smoking, Martinez said he was worried about the impacts on people who use medical marijuana but are renters at properties that likely ban smoking. While opponents to the measure pointed to a 2020 vote where Anchorage residents rejected on-site smoking, Martinez argued that the vote was more about rejecting a Wild West approach to smoking, while his proposal would have required stricter oversight and approvals.
“What I’m proposing here is regulated inhalation in line with state laws and best practices,” he said. “It seems like the next logical step.”
Few of his colleagues agreed.
East Anchorage Assemblymember Yarrow Silvers said that she was particularly concerned about the effects of secondhand smoke, noting that the current air filtration technology still falls well short of a smoke-free workplace.
“This code change risks opening up the door to the tobacco industry to say if people can smoke cannabis indoors, why can’t they have smoking rooms for tobacco products as well?” she said. “Is this really a door that we want to open back up?”
South Anchorage Assemblymember Keith McCormick agreed, noting that the South Anchorage district voted overwhelmingly against the 2020 on-site smoking ordinance.
“I just don’t see enough evidence that circumstances have changed radically to overturn their vote,” he said. “My job is to respect the will of my constituents and will do that here tonight.”
He added that if the Assembly does want to move forward with the issue in the future that he’d like to see it put to another citywide vote.
In questions, Anchorage Police Chief Sean Case said that testing for marijuana intoxication in drivers is still tricky because there are no hard and fast rules for what qualifies as intoxication, and testing isn’t as surefire as it is with alcohol, which has been studied for many more decades than marijuana. Some members said that was a critical factor for them in voting to table the measure.
Still, Martinez and on-site smoking had some supporters. That included Anchorage Assembly Chair Christopher Constant, who said he saw it more as an issue of fairness about finding a place for people who don’t own their homes to have a safe and legal spot to smoke.
“There is a set of people who have no lawful place where they could consume this legal product. That’s a reality,” he said. “We have a two-class society, but there’s nothing new about that. … There is a class issue here to me, that’s the bottom line. I’ll always support the opportunity to equalize for people in our community to have a right to a place to be.”
The measure was ultimately tabled on a 7-3 vote. Assemblymembers Martinez and Constant were joined by Felix Rivera in voting against the action to keep the measure alive. Assemblymembers Silvers, McCormick, Erin Baldwin Day, Zac Johnson, Anna Brawley, Jared Goecker and Kameron Perez-Verdia voted in favor of tablign the measure, effectively killing it for now.
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Bluesky.
