"Chilly Willy" asks Highly Informed this week, "Will I be able to barter, or trade for service, my legally grown weed? Will there be a safe and legal way for me to trade my bud?"
Willy is asking about personal-use herb, not any grown by proxy for a medical card holder, and not any grown by licensed commercial growers after they're established. While strictly speaking, trading goods or services for personal-use cannabis is not allowed according to the state, some circumstances might make enforcement or regulation difficult.
As Alaska Dispatch News has previously reported, authorities have said that bartering personal-use cannabis in exchange for goods or services is not allowed. The reasoning is that receiving something of value is considered profiting from cannabis reserved for personal use, not profit.
Read more Highly Informed: Seeking answers to Alaska's cannabis questions
In a weird way, this is where statute and people who adhere to notions of cannabis karma may agree. One expression of that ethos holds that cannabis is a gift with enough intrinsic profit for humanity, and rather than trying to add profit on the backs of friends, freely sharing respects the original gift. The state may not believe that, but nevertheless, Alaska statute expressly allows giving some cannabis to another adult, but doesn't mention trading or bartering, and expressly disallows compensation in exchange for personal-use pot.
Regardless of whether sharing really is caring, one adult 21 or older giving an ounce or less of cannabis to another adult is specifically allowed by statute. Barter isn't specifically mentioned, but deliveries of a certain quantity that don't involve "remuneration" are allowed by paragraph (c) of section 17.38.020 of Alaska statute.
Cynthia Franklin, head of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, which will be in charge of enforcing regulation of Alaska's marijuana industry once it takes shape, said that nothing has changed with respect to the subject of barter and gifting since that last report. A change in the remuneration language or changes that might allow bartering of personal-use cannabis would require legislative action, she said.
One bill, SB 30, that passed the Senate last legislative session would add language addressing bartering, but the House has yet to consider it.
So for now, profiting from a personal-use garden by exchanging the dank for anything else of value runs the risk of being considered an unlicensed commercial operation, subject to legal consequences.
That risk will vary according to circumstances, but because of language against "remuneration" in the statutes created by Ballot Measure 2 covering personal use, anyone who could be seen as profiting from a personal-use garden will be running one.
And to avoid a misunderstanding, it's important to note that the definitions of "remuneration" in general dictionaries usually center on an exchange of money, but in a legal context, that word refers to many forms of compensation, not just legal tender.
But what if Willy wanted to trade homemade product with someone else? Would a pot-for-pot trade be acceptable if the amounts were under the 1-ounce limit allowed for gifts?
Maybe Chilly and a friend decide to grow clones of the same cannabis strain but use different nutrients, or one uses soil and the other hydro. Maybe after harvest and curing, they give each other an ounce or less and make plans to compare notes at a potluck dinner and epic tasting session.
Franklin said a situation along those lines would be difficult to regulate or enforce against but that to her it doesn't seem to fit the category of a rogue commercial operation.
"For the board and regulatory agency," Franklin said, "the concern is always that someone comes up with something they call a gift but which is really the basis of an unregulated commercial operation."
Although statutes don't specifically address "trading," a scenario of gifts like that might end up being in Willy's words "a legal and safe way" for home growers to trade bud or its derivatives in amounts allowed as a gift between adults. But risk will exist if larger quantities or other circumstances arise to trigger the attention of authorities.
If Chilly Willy wants to trade a quarter pound one month to someone for a new garage door, then a ball of hash the size of an angry toddler's fist for a walk-in smokehouse another month, and maybe an ounce for a cord of firewood the next, authorities may consider him gaining from his personal stash, and he's on his own.
Have a question about marijuana news or culture in Alaska? Send it to cannabis-north@alaskadispatch.com with "Highly Informed" in the subject line.