Alaska is very close to its first legal sales of marijuana, nearly two years after voters passed a bill allowing the recreational use of pot by adults. Retails stores are being permitted by the state Marijuana Control Board, and just a few hurdles remain until commercial sales begin. The biggest road block is getting past waiting for labs to test the raw product. Two labs have been licensed by the state, both in Anchorage. The compound is awaiting final review from the municipality and state and final approval from an accrediting lab.
“If we’re going to start testing by definitely the beginning of November, I think it rolls in pretty well with everything else,” he stated.
Arctic Herbery received the first-ever marijuana license for a retail store from the city of Anchorage on Tuesday evening.
“Maybe people have come to terms that I’m not such a bad guy.” He plans to open his store towards Nov. 1, and he expects a major opening similar to when national chains open in Alaska’s largest city, and lines of customers snake around the business for days. Once the labs open their doors, she believes beginning sales about a week later.
The lab testing procedure takes about 3 days, and then the marijuana will have to be driven from Anchorage to Fairbanks. Like everyone else across the state, owner Tara Bass has to sit tight for cannabis to be cleared by a testing lab. Colorado, Oregon, Washington state and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational marijuana.
Voters in five states – Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada – will consider making recreational pot legal in November. In midst of local elections on Tuesday, voters in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough north of Anchorage approved allowing the sale of marijuana in unincorporated areas, but one city in another part of the state put the brakes on sales.
“Things are finally happening.” He says AK Green Labs is about a week behind CannTest in the race to open. For Destiny Neade, she’s not going to wait until she is totally stocked with edibles and concentrates and will open with just marijuana on the shelves.
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