Alaska Board Mulls Pot Use in Retail Stores
Alaska brothers James and Giono Barrett have a dream: that some of the scores of cruise ship passengers who crowd the streets of the state capital each summer will one day use their shore excursions to kick back and light up a joint in a pot store's lounge.
The Barretts own Juneau's first marijuana retail store and want to tap into the $260 million or so that tourists dropped in the small coastal city last year.
Regulators could decide soon whether to make that happen. At a meeting Thursday in Juneau, they will consider allowing marijuana retail stores statewide to provide separate areas of their businesses for onsite consumption.
It's the first time the matter has been addressed at the state level in the U.S., said Chris Lindsey, a senior legislative counsel with the Marijuana Policy Project. Recreational marijuana is legal in eight states and the District of Columbia. Denver...
