Marijuana Board Drafts Would Strip Ad Warnings; Filing Fix Scores Highest

Alaska marijuana advertisements would no longer have to carry any of the five required health warnings under a draft regulation headed to the state Marijuana Control Board. The repeal of 3 AAC 306.770(g) scores 7 points on the board's own regulatory reduction scale. A separate project that moves packaging and labeling rules into two new sections, without deleting a substantive requirement, scores 135.

Those scores appear in the AO-360 Marijuana Regulations Tracking Spreadsheet, published by the Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office in the packet for a special board meeting set for Tuesday, September 22. It is Zoom only and begins at 9 a.m. Fourteen projects arrive as initial drafts. A fifteenth is listed for discussion.

The warnings now required in every marijuana advertisement state that marijuana has intoxicating effects and may be habit forming and addictive, that it impairs concentration, coordination and judgment and should not be followed by driving or operating machinery, that there are health risks associated with consumption, that it is for adults 21 and older and must be kept out of the reach of children, and that it should not be used by women who are pregnant or breast feeding. Print advertisements must display them in visual contrast. Broadcast advertisements must deliver them in intelligible audio. The draft repealing that subsection is dated 2027 and ranked priority 4.

The Order Behind the Numbers

The spreadsheet exists because of Administrative Order 360, issued by Governor Mike Dunleavy. The order directs executive branch agencies, boards and commissions to "Reduce the number of regulatory requirements by 15 percent by December 31, 2026, and 25 percent (cumulative) by December 31, 2027." It also directs boards to "adjust regulatory structures as necessary to maintain critical consumer protection while eliminating unnecessary barriers to entry for new professionals."

The sheet carries 94 projects and totals 602 reductions, 504 of them dated 2026 and 98 dated 2027. Fifty-eight projects score at least one point. Thirty-six score zero. The sheet instructs that "Regulatory increases are indicated with a minus (-) symbol." No row on the sheet carries a minus sign.

At least two of the zero-scored projects add requirements. One creates packaging rules surrounding a visual symbol, sticker or marker. Another would require that any THC in an Alaska-manufactured product, including THC-A, Delta-8 and Delta-10, come only from marijuana grown in Alaska by a licensed cultivator.

The 135-point project repeals five packaging and labeling sections, 3 AAC 306.345, 306.470, 306.475, 306.565 and 306.570, and moves their text into two new sections, with 18 conforming amendments, the cross-reference fixes elsewhere in the code. Its stated purpose is to make packaging and labeling rules "easier for licensees to follow" by moving them into two dedicated sections. The rewritten packaging section still bans images targeting people under 21, still requires each serving to be marked, and still requires child-resistant packaging at the point of sale.

Marketing, Purchase Limits and Access Areas

A draft repealing 3 AAC 306.770(i) and (j) scores 10. Subsection (i) bars marketing to location-based devices such as cellular phones unless the owner installed the application and can permanently opt out. Subsection (j) allows a licensed establishment to sponsor a trade show, charitable event, sports event or concert "AS LONG AS NO MORE THAN 30 PERCENT OF THE EVENT'S PARTICIPANTS AND AUDIENCE IS REASONABLY EXPECTED TO BE UNDER 21 YEARS OF AGE." The draft repeals the subsection entire and lists no conforming changes, which leaves 3 AAC 306.770(d) referring to a subsection that would not exist.

Repealing both remaining daily purchase caps, seven grams of concentrate for inhalation and 5,600 milligrams of THC across combined sales, scores 2. The one-ounce cap on usable marijuana stays. On onsite consumption limits the draft proposes nothing, asking the board how to proceed.

Restricted access areas are parts of a licensed premises closed to anyone under 21. Removing those requirements across 3 AAC 306.325, 306.430 and related sections scores 31. Program coordinator Jane P Sawyer, in a memorandum dated August 21, 2026, writes that the project "is meant to reduce regulatory burden by removing restrictions on retail operating hours, allowing accompanied persons under 21 years of age on licensed premises and restricted access areas, and more," and that "Some sections are being repealed, other are being reworded into other sections."

The spreadsheet measures reductions against an agency baseline it does not state, so the 602 figure cannot be converted into a percentage. The packet does not say whether a repealed section counts as one reduction or one for each requirement inside it. Neither does the order, which sets its targets without defining a regulatory requirement, naming a baseline or saying how reductions are counted. It assigns that to the Department of Law, directed to "provide the training and documentation to be used in implementing this Order." No such document appears in the packet.

The board's 11 priority 1 projects account for 10 of the 602 points. Its 22 priority 2 projects account for 296, and its 29 priority 3 projects for 198.

This account rests on the meeting packet and Administrative Order 360. The packet contains no licensee comment, no health or prevention organization comment, and no recorded statement from any of the five board members on the advertising warnings or the restricted access areas. The order directs agencies to solicit public input on which regulations "should be prioritized for reform" and to "Document and publish stakeholder and public feedback and agency responses." No such record appears in the packet.

The agenda lists no public hearing, no enforcement report and no licensing business. By the staff memorandum's sequence, the drafts go to the Department of Law for review before any public comment period opens.