Does the picture of a man "toking up" really belong on the front page of your newspaper? I am simply amazed viewing people in the news, and on TV puffing smoke into the camera and into our faces with the most infantile look. It's almost like a small child receiving an ice cream cone for the first time, only that would deserve an exhilarating look!

Is this what we've become? Looking for the next high and then the next, and then the next? Heaven help us if we try to enjoy activities in a sober state. I can voice my opinion as I have lived in a glass house, but fortunately chose to live and function in an unaltered state!

- - Rolf L. Bilet

Anchorage

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Thanks to everyone for having patience during Highly Informed's hiatus. We start back up this week with an intriguing question from "Lago Prano": "I know authorities have been saying that selling pot is illegal, but what about buying it? Is the act of buying pot against the law if you don't buy too much?"

This question opens up a few interesting implications for anti-drug policy itself, but we'll keep the discussion focused on Alaska. The short answer is no; the very act of handing someone money in Alaska and receiving a legal amount of cannabis is not illegal for the person handing over the money.

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Alaska stands to make between $5.1 million and $19.2 million in tax revenue from commercial marijuana in 2016, according to a preliminary estimate by the Alaska Department of Revenue.

An estimate dated Jan. 2 looks at possible revenues that it calls "very uncertain." The tax division had to estimate both how much marijuana is consumed in Alaska every year and what proportion of consumers will switch to marijuana from the legal retail market, said Ken Alper, Department of Revenue tax division director.

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Judging by the scene at Pot Luck Events on Wednesday night, one would never guess the state has advised the club to shut down.

Members had come to the downtown Anchorage marijuana social club to smoke, take dab hits and watch the "Chronic Comedy Show," while eating free candy provided at the nonalcoholic bar. "Bud of the week" samples -- provided by growers, not the club, owner Theresa Collins explained -- were displayed on a table in the back of the room.

Yet the club, which has been open since March, is one of six businesses that received cease-and-desist letters from Cynthia Franklin, director of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board and the newly created Marijuana Control Board, in late June.

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The five members who will make up Alaska's first Marijuana Control Board were named Wednesday morning by Gov. Bill Walker.

The Marijuana Control Board is tasked with crafting Alaska's regulations surrounding legalized recreational and commercial marijuana. The board is made up of volunteers and will function under the auspices of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, sharing the staff and resources of the agency.

Walker said in a release the appointees "bring with them decades of experience in public health, business development and rural issues. With their different backgrounds and diverse skill sets, they will help shepherd in regulations for this new industry."

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Q: We legalized pot in this state in February, so can you tell me how I got fired for THC on my drug test last week? I smoke in my house and on my own time and it's none of my employer's business.

A: Although we legalized recreational marijuana use in Alaska, you probably don't have a winnable lawsuit, particularly if your organization has a zero-tolerance policy regarding drug use.

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WASILLA -- Residents of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, considered Alaska's cannabis-growing capital, may see a commercial marijuana ban on the ballot this year.

Backers of at least two voter initiatives want local ballots in October to include an option to prohibit marijuana businesses such as grow operations, testing labs and retail dispensaries except those involving industrial hemp.

The borough mayor is one of several initiative sponsors behind the push to ban "cannabusiness" at the voting box, even as a borough committee appointed by the mayor himself starts work on local regulations.

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The Anchorage Assembly voted late Tuesday night to include marijuana smoke under the city's ban on tobacco smoke.

Within 90 days, businesses and building owners will have to amend "No Smoking" signs to include a reference to marijuana smoke, according to the measure adopted Tuesday.

The city has already enacted a ban on public consumption, which defines a public place as "a place to which the public or a substantial group of persons has access" and includes streets, highways, sidewalks, alleys, transportation facilities and parks and playgrounds. Many of the facilities outlined in the "secondhand smoking" measure are already covered by the ban on public consumption, according to the measure, introduced by Assembly Chair Dick Traini.

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I think that Anchorage Assembly Chair Dick Traini has a good idea but it needs some follow-through. Treat cannabis as tightly as tobacco, yet as loosely as alcohol. That means places for social use need to be tolerated. Responsible tavern keepers want to provide what their customers want, and to discourage what their neighbors don't want. The same as any other business, cannabis cafes will succeed or fail on how they perform. But they must be allowed to perform, as a necessary shove to push prohibition into the past and regulation into the present.

I miss the North. The grinning children beneath the northern lights in Barrow will never leave me. Please be careful with that Chukchi oil. A spill in Santa Barbara has wounded my heart.

- - Jay Bergstrom

Forest Ranch, Calif.

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FAIRBANKS -- Before Alaska marijuana businesses open their doors, owners will need to know they are growing, testing or selling on land zoned for those activities, local government leaders here say, and residents deserve to know in advance what might or might not be allowed in their neighborhoods.

The state has yet to resolve some key questions about marijuana regulation following voter approval of the legalization initiative last November, but local governments have powers under the measure to establish regulations on commercial activities, though they cannot prohibit personal use.

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Anchorage Assembly Chair Dick Traini is proposing to treat marijuana smoke like tobacco smoke when it comes to public facilities, workplaces and schools.

A measure that Traini plans to introduce next week at the Assembly meeting would incorporate marijuana and marijuana products into the city's secondhand smoking law. That means smoking marijuana would not be allowed in public places, workplaces, child care centers, outdoor arenas, stadiums and amphitheaters and municipal facilities, including schools.

People also would not be allowed to smoke within 5 feet of the entrance to a place licensed to serve alcohol, or within 50 feet of a hospital or medical clinic entrance.

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The public can now weigh in on Alaska's first round of proposed marijuana regulations.

Local option law and marijuana definitions are the focus of the first wave of regulations, unveiled at the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board's meeting in April.

The proposed definitions include basics like what constitutes a "marijuana plant" and "edible marijuana product," but also what it means to "possess" a plant or help someone grow marijuana.

The definition of possession could affect how many plants are allowed per household. Under Ballot Measure 2, the initiative that legalized marijuana in the state, a person is allowed to possess six marijuana plants. But under the proposed regulations, if marijuana plants are in a person's home, they are potentially in that person's possession, regardless of the number of residents. That would mean only six plants would be allowed in the home, instead of six plants per adult living there.

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This week, David asks a two-part question:

I have read the initiative along with the newly passed H.B. 123. I have gone over again and again, and I have yet to see any writing prohibiting a marijuana business from starting before the state starts issuing cannabis business licenses. If anything, I see that it says that a person can, so long as they are 21 or older, act as a lawful business. (Also) H.B. 123 states that one seat on the board is reserved for "one person actively engaged in the marijuana industry," and "marijuana industry" means "a business or profession related to marijuana in which the person is lawfully engaged and that is in compliance with the provisions of state law, including this chapter and regulations adopted under this chapter." How can someone qualify for this seat if what (authorities) talk about is true and no marijuana business can be lawfully engaged at this moment?

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From the variety of specialized products to visitors eager to learn industry tips, the Northwest Cannabis Classic in Anchorage on Saturday looked like a typical trade show.

The obvious exceptions were the cannabis plants displayed in glass jars beneath LED lights, helping make what organizers said was the first event of its kind in Alaska since voters approved the legalization of marijuana more than six months ago.

Aimed at sharing information about the fledgling industry, the three-day show at the Dena'ina Center features panels, demonstrations and products that range from lighting technology to smoking instruments to flower enhancers and plant food. It generated a buzz, with about 700 people buying presale tickets and about as many day-of tickets bought on Saturday, said event organizer Cory Wray.

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"Foxweed" asks, "Now that pot is legal, there are undoubtedly many readers who have never really partaken much in the subculture. Sooner than we think, many options for smoking pot will become available, so how does one pot? I see talk of sativas and indicas, purples and reds and berries and kushes.

Joints, bongs, pipes, vapes? hash, dab etc. etc. I barely have beers and wines figured out here, help me out?"

Well, you're right, when cannabis finally becomes available for legal retail sale to adults 21 and over, the array of products will be dizzying for people who decide to check out the scene.

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This week we're following up on the driving under the influence discussion published April 8. A few Anchorage readers since then have asked for more clarity about how DUI evidence works with cannabis in Alaska's largest city.

As we discussed that week, the chief chemical in cannabis that's believed responsible for impairment is delta-9 THC. As the body uses that substance, it changes into different, inactive forms of THC that no longer produce a "high," but that are evidence of past use. Levels of active THC high enough to cause impairment typically dissipate after several hours, but the inactive form can last in the body for a month or more depending on individual factors. Both types of THC are detectable in blood tests, but the inactive type is more commonly associated with urine tests like the ones used for employers with zero-tolerance drug policies.

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A civilization stands or falls on its oils. Every cell in your body has a protective wall of two layers of interlocked oil molecules. This cell wall determines the health of the cell, by admitting or repelling molecules.

For healthy cells, animals require fats and oils in their diet. Humans require fats, oil and cholesterol for healthy life and clear thinking. The human brain is 25 percent cholesterol.

Every civilization has a significant source of dietary oil. Neanderthals ate meat fat and pine nuts. American small farmers during America's agricultural centuries grew cannabis, flax, sunflowers and nut trees, and ate egg yolks and butterfat. Americans today eat GMO chicken fat, GMO butter, GMO bacon, and, increasingly, GMO canola oil. Alaskans love salmon fat and muktuk. But king salmon, an outstanding fish oil source, is being mismanaged out of existence.

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WASILLA -- A different kind of blight is emerging from heroin use in the Valley: discarded hypodermic needles littering roadsides, parks and waterways from Butte to Houston.

Valley residents say they find syringes without trying -- at a school bus stop in Big Lake, riding horses in Houston, in the sand next to Wasilla Lake.

Houston Fire Capt. Christian Hartley found 30 needles in a stretch of road near a gravel pit just off the Parks Highway in April. Last year, most of the hypodermics turned up along the Parks Highway -- maybe users just threw them out vehicle windows, he said -- but this year most cluster along King Arthur Drive, Houston's busiest artery.

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Alaska's first draft marijuana regulations, proposed Thursday during an Alcoholic Beverage Control Board meeting in Anchorage, address what it means to help someone grow marijuana and what local-option law will look like.

The meeting at the downtown Legislative Information Office attracted about two dozen spectators, who lined a large conference room, surrounding board members and agency staff at a table in the center of the room.

A general sense of optimism prevailed among the audience members, many of whom hoped to start marijuana businesses.

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JUNEAU (AP) -- The state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board is expected to review possible regulations for the new marijuana industry.

The board is scheduled to meet Thursday in Anchorage to discuss marijuana regulations.

When voters in November approved a ballot issue legalizing limited recreational marijuana, they also directed the board to develop regulations for commercial and retail marijuana sales and cultivation.

The agenda also includes an update on the timeline for drafting the rules.

In February, the board made an emergency regulation defining the public places where marijuana is prohibited. It will consider making that rule permanent on Thursday.

A new five-member marijuana control board that shares staff and resources with the alcohol board is expected to take over the regulatory work eventually. By mid-day Wednesday, there were 89 applicants for the board.

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