Alaska Marijuana Regulators to Consider Eliminating Ad Warnings, THC Purchase Limits and Marketing Restrictions on Tuesday

Alaska marijuana regulators are scheduled to consider a broad series of regulatory changes Tuesday that could eliminate mandatory warnings from marijuana advertisements, loosen restrictions on mobile marketing and event sponsorships, simplify packaging and inventory rules and remove two major retail purchase limits.

The Alaska Marijuana Control Board will hold a special meeting September 22 beginning at 9 a.m. Alaska time. Newly released meeting documents reveal detailed draft language for more than a dozen regulatory projects being reviewed under the state’s Administrative Order 360 regulatory reform initiative.

Among the more significant proposals is a substantial rewrite of Alaska’s marijuana advertising rules. The draft would repeal a requirement that marijuana advertisements carry five warning statements addressing intoxication, impaired driving, health risks, adult-only use and marijuana use during pregnancy or breastfeeding.

The proposal would also repeal Alaska’s restriction on location-based marijuana marketing to cellphones and other devices. Current rules generally prohibit that advertising unless it occurs through an application voluntarily installed by an adult 21 or older and includes an easy opt-out option.

Another proposed repeal involves marijuana business sponsorship of events. Current regulations allow licensed businesses to sponsor trade shows, charitable events, sporting events, concerts and other approved events only when no more than 30% of the expected participants and audience are under 21. The draft would remove that provision. Other advertising restrictions, including rules prohibiting advertisements that appeal to minors and restrictions on advertising near schools and certain other facilities, would remain.

Regulators will also revisit a proposal to eliminate Alaska’s daily retail limits of seven grams of marijuana concentrate intended for inhalation and 5,600 milligrams of THC in combined marijuana and marijuana product purchases. The state’s separate one-ounce limit for usable marijuana would remain.

The draft also asks the board to decide whether to modify or repeal separate limits for licensed onsite consumption areas, which currently allow a person to purchase for onsite use no more than one gram of flower, 25 milligrams of THC in edibles and a vaping device containing no more than 0.3 grams of concentrate per day.

Another regulatory project would consolidate and simplify marijuana packaging and labeling requirements. Five existing regulatory sections covering retailers, cultivators and manufacturers would be replaced with two dedicated sections governing packaging and labeling. State staff describe the proposal as both simplifying the rules and reducing regulatory requirements.

Separate drafts would consolidate inventory-tracking requirements that currently appear throughout regulations into a single section and streamline rules governing marijuana samples used for quality control and facilitating business-to-business sales. The sampling proposal would eliminate the requirement to submit an MJ26 form and instead require appropriate inventory adjustment notes in the state’s tracking system.

The board will additionally consider removing several references to “in-house testing” by cultivators and product manufacturers. The proposal does not eliminate Alaska’s required laboratory testing system; rather, state staff say the existing language specifically authorizing businesses to conduct their own internal testing does not need to be regulated and can be removed.

Other items scheduled for discussion include rules involving people under 21 on licensed premises, business-record requirements, marijuana tax penalties, grounds for license denial and definitions for immature, mature, flowering and non-flowering marijuana plants.

The proposals remain initial regulatory drafts for board discussion. Any changes advanced Tuesday would still have to proceed through Alaska’s formal regulatory process before taking effect.