The Alaska Marijuana Control Board penalized Alaska Hempfest for allowing public consumption at its June festival in Wasilla.

The board voted Wednesday to fine Hempfest director Niki Raapana, of Fairbanks, $10,000 with $7,500 suspended pending no future violations.

The vote was unanimous with one board member abstaining.

The fine is the second imposed on an organizer of a gathering of cannabis enthusiasts in Alaska as some call on a review of the definition of public, which is “a place to which the public or a substantial group of people has access.”

This fiscal year, the tax revenue from marijuana sales has exceeded expectations.

The State of Alaska collected more than $11 million dollars in marijuana tax revenues from cultivators in the 2018 fiscal year, officials said Wednesday. The amount exceeded predictions from the Alaska Department of Revenue by nearly $2 million.

The numbers reported Wednesday are for the fiscal year that ended June 30. The figures only include taxes from cannabis cultivators and not revenue collected from retail stores and other marijuana businesses.

An Alaska official floated the idea of taxing the state's legal marijuana industry based on the ingredient that produces a high at a meeting Wednesday with industry representatives and regulators.

Erika McConnell, director of the Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office, mentioned the idea of a tax based on THC content, saying she had heard about the concept at a conference and asked members of the Marijuana Control Board for their thoughts.

Board member Brandon Emmett, who works in the pot industry, said he had not explored the idea but said anything is probably better than the current tax. But Loren Jones, who has the board's public health seat, said the idea bothered him. Discussion on the concept essentially ended there.

Jeff Ankerfelt is the police chief of Sitka, a Southeastern city in Alaska who has recently been appointed to Alaska's cannabis regulation board. He believes fighting cannabis has been a huge waste of resources for law enforcement agencies and is committing himself to progressive industry regulations, writes Calvin Hughes.

In a move to promote social justice and to defend citizens’ ability to work, the Alaska House passes measure to erase prior marijuana convictions.

This weekend, Alaska took steps to end discrimination against people charged with low-level marijuana possession.

Alaska legalized marijuanaback in November of 2014, but legislators had yet to address the issue of prior marijuana charges. While the federal government threatens to revamp the War on Drugs, the Alaska House passes measure to erase prior marijuana convictions.

Federal marijuana prohibition impacts everyone in the newly legal field, from nationwide firms down to individuals simply trying to make a living in the sector.

Alaska regulators, once on the cusp of allowing on-site use of marijuana at authorized retail stores, plan to take another run at the issue this week.

The Marijuana Control Board is scheduled to discuss proposed rules for allowing on-site consumption, but whether the board will reach a final conclusion isn't clear.

The board is down one member; Travis Welch resigned less than two months after his appointment to the public safety seat after being dismissed from his job as a police chief. The board's director has recommended that the panel put the draft rules out for public comment.

The board is scheduled to meet in Nome for three days, starting today.

One of Alaska’s three marijuana testing labs has been shut down by Wells Fargo bank, leaving the state’s growers with only two options for state-mandated testing.

In a social media post Thursday morning, testing lab Steep Hill of Anchorage declared, “We are sorry to announce that Steep Hill Alaska will be suspending cannabis testing operations on March 31, 2018.

We have to relocate because Wells Fargo called in the loan on our building. They will foreclose if we do not move out — just because we are a cannabis business!”

State legislators send a clear message to the Trump administration.

Bipartisan support for marijuana policy is virtually unheard of.

But a unanimous vote in favor of upholding citizens’ right to legal cannabis? It’s so rare as to be almost mythical.

Yet that’s exactly what happened in the Alaska House on Monday, where state legislators voted unanimously to demand that the federal government stop trying to enforce federal cannabis law there. With Alaska taking a stand against threat of federal cannabis crackdown, will other states follow suit?

Alaska To Feds: Respect State Regulation Of Marijuana