Alaska wants to change how it measures edible pot strength — and some legal products may not pass

Marijuana keeps getting stronger, and Alaska is proposing to change how it counts the strength — a shift that could push edibles that are legal today over the state's potency limit tomorrow, without anything about the products actually changing.

The proposed rule, from the state's Marijuana Control Board, would measure the THC in edibles as "total THC" instead of the "active THC" standard in place now. The serving cap stays the same on paper — 10 milligrams per serving, 100 per package. What changes is the math behind the number.

Here's the catch. "Total THC" adds in THCA, a compound in cannabis that isn't intoxicating on its own but converts into THC when it's heated. The board's formula counts it: total THC equals THC plus 0.877 times THCA. So an edible that measures under the limit today, on the active-THC standard, could test over it under the new one — same product, higher number. Industry advocates warn the change could force manufacturers to reformulate their products to stay under the cap.

It's the latest tightening of lines the state has already moved more than once. Alaska actually raised its edible limits in 2021, from 5 milligrams a serving to 10, and from 50 per package to 100 — under the active-THC standard now being replaced. A separate change under board consideration would fold delta-8 THC, another potency-adding compound, into the definition as well.

The shift lands on an industry that already feels squeezed by enforcement. Regulators have added probation to the penalties they can impose alongside fines, which can reach $50,000 for repeat violations. The Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office has recommended probation-plus-fines against operators including Tip Top Cannabis, where investigators tied an $8,000 fine to 32 sales made without checking ID. The Alaska Marijuana Industry Association and former board members have called that kind of enforcement overly punitive — part of a national pattern of states retuning their cannabis rules years after legalization, as the product on the shelf keeps getting more potent than the one voters first approved.

The same regulatory package includes a second, unrelated change to the procedure licensees follow when they contest an enforcement accusation. The posted drafts carry no effective date yet, and the board took up its regulations projects at its meeting in Anchorage this week.