Pubdate: Wed, 28 Jan 2015 Source: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (AK) Copyright: 2015 Fairbanks Publishing Company, Inc. Contact: http://newsminer.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/764 Author: Dorothy Chomicz OFFICIALS LOOK OUTSIDE FOR HELP WITH POTENTIAL MARIJUANA PROBLEMS FAIRBANKS - Local and state agencies are looking to Colorado for help in preparing to deal with the slew of changes that will be encountered when marijuana possession becomes legal in Alaska next month. Several people from the Fairbanks area attended a three-day training conference earlier this month presented by the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police in Lone Tree, Colorado, to discuss the lessons learned in the first year of marijuana legalization there. Legal recreational marijuana retail stores have been open in Colorado since Jan. 1, 2014, and medical marijuana use has been in place for more than a decade. Officials there shared their knowledge with their counterparts in Alaska, Oregon and the District of Columbia in the hopes those jurisdictions could avoid some of the mistakes and pitfalls inherent with legalization. Not surprisingly, law enforcement officials see the most potential problems. Methods for testing a driver's alcohol levels were perfected in the late 1930s, and the Breathalyzer was invented in 1954, allowing quick and easy roadside testing. Unsafe levels of alcohol were determined and standardized in the 1970s through the 1990s, and today all states have set a blood-alcohol level limit of 0.08 percent. Marijuana, however, is a whole new ballgame. "The biggest problems with DUIs is that we don't have a very good method for testing and determining how high a person is," North Pole Police Lt. Chad Rathbun said. "Colorado has been doing this for a full year now and they still don't have a test." Rathbun, who attended the conference along with North Pole Police Chief Steve Dutra, said that while it may be more difficult and time-consuming to arrest and convict marijuana DUIs, that doesn't mean stoned drivers can expect a get-out-of-jail-free card. "We're still arresting and it's still illegal, and you still can be convicted for a DUI. Just because marijuana has become legal does not mean you can drive under the influence of marijuana or any other drug or medication," Rathbun said. Fairbanks Police Lt. Eric Jewkes attended the conference with Deputy Chief Brad Johnson. Jewkes agreed that defining what constitutes driving under the influence of marijuana is one of the biggest hurdles law enforcement will face. "We want to know what is allowed and what is not," Jewkes said. "First we have to know where that line is, and everyone else has to know where that line is - to know what the acceptable limits are within the human body and an efficient way to test it that also preserves people's rights. Colorado is making headway, but they definitely don't have all of the answers." Concerns of pot products Other legalization problems encountered in Colorado are the increased popularity and profusion of edible marijuana products, the production of hash oil - or concentrated marijuana - and the rapidly increasing potency of marijuana. Conference attendees learned the average THC level of marijuana in Colorado has more than doubled in the past two years. "This is a much stronger weed than what they were dealing with in the '60s. It's no longer your grandfather's marijuana," Rathbun said. Much of the rise in marijuana potency is caused by edibles, which are made with concentrated marijuana. "Colorado is developing and has implemented regulations, but initially when it came out they never even saw edibles coming," Rathbun said. "They got hit by it like a freight train. We're trying to get out in front of that with the edibles, because the THC content . is 90 percent. There aren't studies to show what that does to people." Edible marijuana is problematic because products do not taste or smell like marijuana and often are packaged to look like existing food products such as candy bars, soft drinks, popcorn and even gourmet cheese. There is a real concern among law enforcement that these products will fall into the hands of children or be given to people who don't realize what they are eating. The effects of edible marijuana can take as long as two hours to be felt. More than 300 edible marijuana products are available for sale in Colorado, according to Jewkes. Hash oil production is a concern because the method of production involves the use of butane, causing conditions consistent with and as hazardous as those in methamphetamine production. For instance, in 2014 there were more than 30 house explosions in Colorado associated with hash oil production, Jewkes said. Learning from mistakes Christine Nelson, director of the Fairbanks North Star Borough Department of Community Planning, said she's glad she attended the conference. "There was so much information it was just like a tsunami coming at us," Nelson said. Asking the right questions and thinking it through are what I got from the conference," she said. Nelson said the conference helped her see that determining definitions will be important in implementing the new law. "The state law says you can't use in public. Does that mean in your front lawn? On your porch? We have not answered these questions," Nelson said. "The state may choose not to define 'public' - Colorado didn't. My understanding is it allowed communities to define for themselves what public meant. Those are the kinds of things we're researching." Nelson said it will need to be determined which areas will be appropriate zones for retail and what licensing process will be used. Much of that will be worked out in community meetings, in which members of law enforcement, the military, local groups and university officials, among others, will meet with Mayor Luke Hopkins to determine which way to deal with things. The first such meeting will be held at 10 a.m. today in the Borough Assembly chambers. The public is welcome to attend and watch, but public comment will not be taken at this time, Nelson said. Cynthia Franklin, director of the Alaska Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, attended the conference as well. Her agency was named in the ballot measure as the default agency to create the rules, unless the Legislature creates a separate marijuana control board and agency. "That's an open question how they're going to handle that and it's something we're waiting to see," Franklin said. "The time frame when we're going to find out is going to eat into the time frame that we have to write the rules. Starting on Feb. 24, we have nine months to write the rules, and the Legislature meets until April 19." Franklin said she and members of her staff "learned a lot from Colorado's mistakes with edibles" and believe that will prove invaluable in helping them "start in a good place." "We got a ton of help from them. The attorney general's office in particular was very open, transparent and answered all of our questions. They let us look at everything that they've done, good or bad, and have offered to continue to help us moving forward. We were very encouraged to have all the help," Franklin said. Franklin also learned that public education about marijuana is a must, particularly when it comes to forms of marijuana people may not have encountered before, such as edibles and concentrates. "These are things that people need to be learning about and need to understand. We, as the state, need to make sure that the information is out there before, or at least at, the time that any licenses are issued," Franklin said. Franklin said she also learned that the way the ballot measure was written to allow a "tremendous amount" of local control will be helpful in moving into the implementation phase. "It's a good thing, in my opinion, for local communities to have a say over land use, zoning, planning and conditional use permits, just as they do in alcohol," Franklin said. The bottom line is that there is no need to panic and that the state will deal with the new law in our own "uniquely Alaskan" way, according to Franklin. "The thing that I try to remind everybody is that per capita, Alaska is fourth in the nation of marijuana use. This is not new. It's here, people use it, we know that," Franklin said. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom