JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) – Alaskans on Tuesday reacted to reports from multiple sources that the Biden Administration intends to reclassify regulation of cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III, altering its categorization to match drugs considered to be less dangerous. Schedule I is the most strict, and includes drugs such as heroin and LSD. Schedule III, where cannabis is expected to soon move, includes Tylenol with codeine and anabolic steroids.
Additionally, Schedule I is a category for drugs considered to have no medical use and a high potential for abuse, whereas Schedule III is classified as having moderate to low potential for dependence, and can be used for medicinal purposes.
Attorney Jana Weltzin – who is a board member with the Alaska Marijuana Industry Association – said the potential move by the federal government would be a huge benefit for businesses, because they would no longer be treated like “drug traffickers.” She also said such a change to reschedule the drug would be a relief for many businesses, in the event that they could deduct business expenses when filing taxes.
“That’s a very helpful thing,” she said. “We go from having all this phantom income, because there are all these expenses that you have to attribute to your net income and pay taxes on. To be able to capture those regular business expenses and be able to deduct them, like a normal business, that really helps. There’s nothing about this rescheduling that hurts so far, nothing that hurts a business.”
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Weltzin said reclassifying cannabis from a Schedule I to a Schedule III substance does not necessarily mean marijuana will be legal for medical reasons across the country, and it will not legalize marijuana outright for recreational use, but it does mean the federal government recognizes it has value medically. As far as the move possibly leading to wide-sweeping change by the federal government to legalize marijuana, Weltzin said there could be unintended consequences.
“You get interstate commerce,” she said. “State of Alaska excise tax as it currently stands could be completely out the window. And then the state is out roughly $2 million a month in marijuana excise tax. And so, we have to be careful and artful about how we think about federal legalization, and really engage with the stakeholders.
“It really should be more of a state rights approach,” she continued, “rather than just a sweeping federal change, because a lot of the businesses that are built specifically under the state programs could not survive a federal landscape if it’s not done correctly.”
Several state lawmakers who were asked on Tuesday if the potential move by the federal government could disrupt any legislation in the works this session declined to comment.
JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) – The Supreme Court of Alaska will be taking up the case of the State of Alaska, Division of Elections v. Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr.
The oral arguments will be held Monday at 10 a.m. via Zoom, according to an order and opening notice.
The document also specifies that a decision is expected to be made before noon on Tuesday.
According to documents from the Division of Elections, the state must start printing ballots at noon on the same day.
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This comes after an Anchorage Superior Court Judge ordered Dan J. Sullivan on to the ballot Friday.
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A new home under construction in Potter Valley in Anchorage. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
This June, two very different offers reach Alaska families, and both amount to the same thing: $10,000. The difference is everything.
Bill Walker, running for governor, would hand every eligible Alaskan a one-time $10,000 check and then end the Permanent Fund dividend for good. Ask one question: Where does his $10,000 come from?
It comes from the Permanent Fund, the people’s own money and the savings Alaskans built for their children. Walker would spend that endowment once to pay Alaskans to give up the yearly dividend forever.
Think about what that does. It cancels the annual check that gives a family a reason to keep an Alaska address and replaces it with a single payout. You hand people their own savings, call it a gift and cut the tie that held them here in the same motion. It is the oldest mistake in governing money: raid what you have saved to buy a moment’s applause and call the spending generosity.
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A plan that spends the people’s savings to send the people away is not bold. It is foolish.
Now consider the other $10,000. Through Alaska Housing Finance Corp., the state offers families up to $10,000 to build a new, energy-efficient home. AHFC raids nothing. It earns its own way. Over the years, it has returned more than $2 billion to the state treasury, and it spends some of that income the way any good business does: to win a customer.
Here, the customer is an Alaskan who wants to own a home, put down roots and stay.
That is the oldest sound move in business: Invest a little of what you earn to bring in someone who stays. The homeowner remains, the community gains a family and the corporation keeps earning. The money spent comes back. A plan that puts earnings to work to bring people home is not charity. It is clever.
Same amount. Opposite source. Opposite wisdom. One spends savings; the other spends earnings. One pays Alaskans to leave; the other pays them to stay. One empties the state; the other fills it.
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This Homeownership Month, the choice is the size of a single check, and the whole question is where the check comes from and what it asks of you. Ten thousand dollars of your own fund, to wave you goodbye. Or $10,000, earned and reinvested, to help you stay and build.
Evan Swensen is the publisher of Publication Consultants in Anchorage and the author of “What’s the Money For: A Permanent Fund Mortgage Proposal.”
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