Palmer certifies pot ballot measure

PALMER — City officials said Wednesday they had certified a ballot measure that could ban certain forms of marijuana business from the city limits here.

That means the ballot measure will go before the July 28 city council meeting for consideration. An adoption would effectively nullify the referendum. A failure to adopt the measure would mean the issue would head to local voters for the Oct. 3 election.

A separate measure being pushed forward at the borough level had not yet been certified. Organizers of the Mat-Su Borough petition had until Aug. 4 to collect the necessary signatures, and unlike the Palmer initiative, the measure would not go before a legislative body.

Donna Irsik sponsored the Palmer initiative (which was co-sponsored by borough Mayor Larry DeVilbiss, though he’s said he is not advocating for voters to take a particular side), and said voters deserved the right to choose.

“I think that it is the Palmer city residents’ right to choose whether they want those things in the city limits,” she said. “I think they have a right to choose whether they want to have marijuana prohibited. They have to right to choose whether they want it in their city or not.”

Irsik said she personally doesn’t object to bar or lounge-style arrangements with heavy ventilation systems (the state ordered the closure of a cannabis-friendly hookah lounge in Wasilla earlier this year, alleging it violated provisions of Alaska marijuana code), but objected to retail locations, which could lead to loitering.

“In a bar, there’s a place for people to hang out,” she said. “They have tables and chairs. When they’re done, drinking, they usually get a ride home. With a retail store, there’s no place to hang out. They may not be smoking on the sidewalk, but they’re going to be loitering and hanging around outside the store, chatting with each other outside the store.”

Products infused with marijuana could also be confused with products not containing it, Irsik said. Marijuana businesses could bring in taxes, but that isn’t a necessarily a reason to welcome them to town, Irsik said.

“It boils down for me to money versus morality,” she said. “Morality as far as safety for our kids.”

Proponents of legal marijuana, like marijuana advisory board chair Sara Williams — who aspires to one day be the CEO of a legal marijuana growing business herself — said the measure is premature. The measure would also jeopardize access for medical consumers, as well as potential tax revenue and job gains.

“It is too soon in the process to ban commercialization facilities in any part of the state,” she said. “With the regulations still under development it is too soon to truly understand what commercialization will do for our communities.”

The proposed bans are fueled by fear, Williams said.

“At this time, it appears to be old fears and misconceptions of what a ‘pot head’ is and how ‘they’ impact society that is governing these knee-jerk reactions,” she said.

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.