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

Alaska marijuana ads would no longer have to carry health warnings under a draft rule headed to the Marijuana Control Board. On the state's own scorecard for cutting regulations, that change is worth 7 points.

Moving packaging and labeling rules into two new sections — without deleting a single substantive requirement — is worth 135.

The scores come from a tracking spreadsheet the board is working from under Administrative Order 360, which Gov. Mike Dunleavy issued directing agencies, boards and commissions to cut their regulatory requirements 15 percent by the end of this year and 25 percent by the end of next. The order also tells them to "maintain critical consumer protection while eliminating unnecessary barriers." The board takes up the drafts at a Zoom-only special meeting at 9 am Tuesday.

The five warnings the draft would remove now appear in every marijuana ad: that marijuana is intoxicating and may be habit-forming and addictive; that it impairs concentration, coordination and judgment, so users shouldn't drive; that there are health risks; that it's for adults 21 and older and must be kept away from children; and that it shouldn't be used during pregnancy or breastfeeding.

The packaging project scoring 135 points repeals five sections and moves their text into two new ones. Its stated purpose is to make the rules "easier for licensees to follow." The rewritten version still bans images aimed at people under 21, still requires each serving to be marked, and still requires child-resistant packaging.

Other drafts go further on access for young people. One, scoring 31 points, removes restricted access areas and would allow people under 21 onto licensed premises if accompanied. Another, scoring 10, repeals a ban on marketing to phones through location tracking and removes a rule barring licensees from sponsoring events where more than 30 percent of the audience is expected to be under 21. Repealing the remaining daily purchase caps on concentrates and total THC scores 2. The one-ounce limit on usable marijuana stays.

In all, the spreadsheet lists 94 projects totaling 602 reductions. How much of the board's rulebook that represents is impossible to say, because the sheet never states a baseline — and neither does the governor's order, which also doesn't define what counts as a regulatory requirement.

The sheet is also lopsided in a way it says it shouldn't be. Its instructions say regulatory increases should be marked with a minus sign. At least two projects add new requirements — one creating packaging rules around a visual marker, another requiring that any THC in an Alaska-made product come only from Alaska-grown marijuana. Both are scored zero. No row on the sheet carries a minus sign.

The order also directs agencies to solicit public input and publish it. The meeting packet contains no comment from licensees, health or prevention organizations, or any board member on the advertising warnings or the under-21 changes.

The drafts go to the Department of Law for review before any public comment period opens.