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

California, Massachusetts, and Alaska are moving to protect state-legal marijuana businesses from the long arm of Jeff Sessions’ Justice Department.

Since U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions revoked Obama-era federal protections for state-legal cannabis businesses in January of this year, the country’s legal weed industry has been waiting for the other shoe to finally drop.

If the two states pass their bills, they’ll become the 35th and 36th states to legalize hemp cultivation.

Hemp has been cultivated by cultures around the world for millennia, grown for its strong fibers and used to make clothing, fuel, paper, rope, and many other of life’s necessities. But hemp cultivation in the U.S. was put to an end in the early 20th century, when the federal government prohibited the cultivation of cannabis, which includes both hemp and marijuana, even though hemp itself isn’t psychoactive.

Taxes on wholesale marijuana are frustrating Alaska cannabis growers.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports some Alaska growers are calling for a reform, as the cannabis supply in the state increases and wholesale prices decline.

The drop in wholesale prices is good for consumers because the retail price of marijuana also is dropping. But some retailers say prices in general have gone from $20 or more per gram to about $18 per gram.

The tax on marijuana sold to retailers by the growers remains $50 per ounce. That's $800 per pound for marijuana bud and $260 per pound for the rest of the plant.