Cannabis North

Senators postpone debate on Alaska marijuana crime bill

The Alaska Senate's discussion of a marijuana crime bill was put on hold until Monday after two amendments were offered too soon to be studied before Friday's floor session began, lawmakers said.

One amendment, to be introduced by Sen. Pete Kelly, R-Fairbanks, deals with marijuana concentrates. The other would remove marijuana from the list of controlled substances in state laws and will be introduced by Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage.

The bill up for debate, Senate Bill 30, addresses marijuana and Alaska's criminal statutes and was introduced as part of the response to the initiative approved in November that legalized some recreational uses of the drug.

The bill has changed as it makes its way through the Senate -- the Judiciary Committee version, which made marijuana a non-controlled substance, was later replaced by the Finance Committee's version, in which pot was placed back on the controlled substance schedule.

After being delayed Wednesday, the bill was scheduled to be heard on the Senate floor Friday. However, two amendments were brought up right before the floor session, said Sen. John Coghill, R-North Pole.

Coghill said senators needed a chance to review the two amendments before bringing them to the floor.

Kelly was planning to reintroduce an amendment restricting marijuana concentrates, staffer Joe Byrnes said. "We got the amendment from drafting really late, so it was just too late to bring up on the floor," he said.

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Coghill said Kelly had brought forward a version Friday morning, which was revised again right before the floor session. Coghill said he hadn't had a chance to "digest that version" yet.

Kelly had introduced an amendment banning all marijuana concentrates on Feb. 24, 2017. The amendment passed an initial vote in the Finance Committee, but the amendment was later removed from the final version passed out of committee.

The second amendment was to be introduced by Wielechowski.

Wielechowski said his 76-page amendment makes marijuana a non-controlled substance and removes felony charges for marijuana-related crimes. "Essentially what it did is it reverted back to the judiciary version" of the crime bill, Wielechowski said.

Laurel Andrews

Laurel Andrews was a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch News and Alaska Dispatch. She left the ADN in October 2018.

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