The national group Marijuana Policy Project, the primary financial sponsor of Alaska's initiative to legalize recreational marijuana, continues to advocate in the Last Frontier as lawmakers attempt to draft marijuana legislation.
MPP intends "to defend the initiative from being attacked in the state legislature in 2015," according to the organization's 2015 Strategic Plan. To this end, the organization is providing both funding and legal support for the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol in Alaska.
MPP was the Campaign to Regulate's primary financial backer during the 2014 election, spending more than $800,000 in support of Ballot Measure 2. MPP also provided the majority of funding for Alaska's failed 2004 initiative.
After Ballot Measure 2 passed, MPP informed the Campaign to Regulate that it would continue to advocate in Alaska, Campaign to Regulate chair Tim Hinterberger said.
The decision to continue with such active involvement after the election was likely because MPP "probably anticipated more fully than I did" the Legislature's involvement in crafting marijuana regulations, Hinterberger said.
Their decision isn't unusual. "We are certainly not unique in having assistance from a national nonprofit on our local policy laws and questions," he said.
MPP's motto is "We Change Laws." Founded in 1995, the nonprofit organization's national advocacy efforts are laid out in its 2015 Stategic Plan -- an "ambitious and bold" year for the organization, aiming to decriminalize or legalize recreational marijuana in 13 states.
In Alaska, MPP continues to retain Anchorage marketing firm Strategies 360, which it employed leading into the 2014 election. Through the firm, MPP also funded Anchorage city bus ads that urged Alaskans to consume marijuana responsibly. Those ads were unveiled on Feb. 24, the day the initiative went into effect, and ran for two weeks.
Like many other nonprofits and businesses, MPP has hired a lobbyist in Juneau. Frank Bickford is paid $5,000 monthly to lobby for MPP, according to the Alaska Public Offices Commission. Frank is the father of Taylor Bickford, director of Alaska operations at Strategies 360, who works with the Campaign to Regulate.
As lawmakers tackle various aspects of marijuana law, MPP is playing its role.
"We ask for their input quite regularly," said Thomas Brown, House Judiciary Committee aide. As of Thursday, three bills related to marijuana regulation were in the House Judiciary Committee.
"We consider them a primary stake holder … and I consider them obvious experts on the subject matter," Brown said.
When a draft bill is introduced, MPP legislative analyst Rachelle Yeung analyzes the legislation and provides the organization's stance on the bill. She will offer either support, opposition or a neutral stance. Yeung provides MPP's legal opinion on sections where it would prefer changes to the bill.
Yeung's workload includes more than a dozen states and all U.S. territories, she said. She wasn't sure how much of her time is dedicated to Alaska issues, but said this is one of the primary states she is working on.
"It is a huge priority that we can provide the resources in Alaska … to make sure this is implemented correctly," Yeung said.
Yeung said she worked with legislators often during the Senate Judiciary Committee's drafting of SB 30, the marijuana crime bill that initially removed marijuana from the list of controlled substances, which has since been revised. "They reached out to us frequently as they were developing drafts," Yeung said.
Hinterberger, a volunteer, said that he doesn't have the time to read through the numerous drafts of bills. "There would just be no way."
Hinterberger said that between the Campaign to Regulate and MPP, there was "rarely if ever any disagreement over how to proceed" on bills.
Heath Hilyard, chief of staff for Rep. Cathy Tilton, R-Wasilla, agreed that MPP's legal knowledge was being considered by legislators. For instance, it was MPP who informed the House Community and Regional Affairs Committee about a 12-plant-per-home limit in Denver. That provides a test case that Alaska can look to, Hilyard said. In the draft bill of HB 75, a 12-plant limit per home has been included.
MPP provides amendments to the bill, but at the same time, "we have adopted certain things that they don't necessarily fully endorse," Hilyard said.