Opinions

Legalized marijuana industry is wrong for Alaska

I love Alaska. I was born here; and I trained here. I was proud to represent the United States and Alaska in the Winter Games and to share my Olympic medal with the entire state upon my return. Now I am very happy to raise my family here and encourage them to be healthy and productive members of our great state.

Throughout my life I have embraced health, determination, and a strong work ethic, while helping others to do their best. To succeed, it is important to surround oneself with a supportive, positive, and healthy environment.

I am very concerned about Ballot Measure 2 and the negative impacts that commercializing and industrializing marijuana would have on the entire state, especially our youth and families. Legalizing marijuana does not foster the productivity and motivation needed to be successful and will greatly effect the future generations. We all know, it takes a lot to succeed, and I think we should provide a positive, healthy environment that gives our Alaskan youth their best shot.

For so many reasons, I am glad that I did not grow up in a state that had retail marijuana stores selling marijuana infused lollipops, sweet marijuana carbonated drinks, and marijuana ice cream bars. And I am happy that I was not exposed to advertising of marijuana, marijuana concentrates, and marijuana-infused edibles, and accessories -- in the ADN or Anchorage Press, or on street corners. I am also glad that there were not vans and buses driving around with marijuana products painted on their sides. And looking forward, I do not want my children or their friends to be bombarded by all of this.

I know that some of the advocates for Ballot Measure 2 might call me a prohibitionist. There have been a lot of attacks against people who have expressed their opinion that commercialization and industrialization is the wrong approach for Alaska. But here's the deal. We don't have marijuana prohibition in Alaska; our Supreme Court has ruled that people can use marijuana in their homes. And we have legalized medical marijuana. We do not need to adopt an extreme, outside-funded, commercialized approach to address marijuana appropriately in our state. The broadness of the initiative is also alarming. For example, legalizing marijuana processing and high-potency marijuana concentrates? There are far too many problems with this extreme initiative.

After reading a piece in the Alaska Dispatch series about marijuana legalization in Washington, I sent it to my friend Ryan McDonald, a former US Snowboard Team member who lives in Wenatchee a link and asked his thoughts. He wrote: "Not sure that there is any turning back now ... It is a mess."

Alaskans have always been proud of our individuality. Our physical distance as well as our frontier spirit sets us apart from the "Lower 48." We have over 50 Olympians, the Iditarod, the Iron Dog, and over 90 languages spoken in our schools throughout the state. And everyone knows, Alaskans don't like anyone from anywhere telling us what and how to do things- we do it the 907 way. So why are we ok with almost all of the funding for Ballot Measure 2 coming from outside of Alaska? I do not understand why outside interests are spending almost a million dollars to convince Alaskans that we should commercialize and industrialize marijuana in our state. We need to ask ourselves, what is their skin in the game?

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As an Olympian, I strive to set a positive example to others. As a parent and citizen, I continue to try to do the same. That is why I am voting no on Ballot Measure 2.

Rosey Fletcher-Grunwaldt won bronze in the women's snowboarding parallel giant slalom event at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.

Editor's note: The preceding commentary was not the one originally published at this URL. The current version replaced at the author's request an unapproved draft that was mistakenly submitted.

The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com.

Rosey Fletcher-Grunwaldt

Rosey Fletcher-Grunwaldt is a lifelong Alaskan and former U.S. Olympic snowboarder.

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