Mat-Su Bans Onsite Consumption
Contributed by Bailey Stuart
The ongoings of politics these days really blow me away, and not always for the good. I witnessed its illogical reasonings recently on a local level. It’s an untold story that I feel needs to be told and this isn’t just about cannabis, it is about state liberties that had been granted to us as residents of the State of Alaska per statue and regulation that have been taken away and hardly anyone knows. And I could understand if this was based on outstanding findings of research, but this was about following a trend set by alcohol that has not gone well for other states which is blood nanogram testing for marijuana DUI’s.
In April of 2023 the Matsu Borough Planning Commission ordinance referral was introduced to the Matsu Borough Assembly. The ordinance would effectively prohibit onsite consumption here in our borough until certain numerical standards are set for operating a vehicle while under the influence of marijuana are adopted by the State of Alaska.
Now I understand what prohibitionist culture has left this industry to repair. I understand the normal response is to want to protect the public from the newest legal drug to hit the market. I understand prohibiting onsite because the majority of the community feels the same way. But that is not what happened here and what I don’t understand is passing a law with information being presented to you that speaks to the science behind an ordinance is not sound, and why there wasn’t more research done prior to referring this ordinance to the assembly. This was brought up in the planning commissions meeting on the proposed ordinance by a commissioner that served as a district attorney. And how this kind of law has been discussed before however when they tried to use numerical means of measuring intoxication through the blood the science just did not line up. When brought to trial it never stood up to the test of the courts. It has essentially become a dead law in states that have adopted it. This ordinance was brought forth by an assembly member whose concerns about law enforcement not having a mechanism to measure cannabis intoxication and that we should consider prohibition of the onsite consumption lounges so that we prevent intoxicated driving.
While I understand where they are coming from, I also know that prohibition is not going to prevent intoxicated driving, prohibition never does. Education and intervention are how you prevent intoxicated driving. You educate the public; you educate the budtenders just like we do with bartenders through required courses (which the State of Alaska has already adopted for both industries). This is how we prevent intoxicated driving, not through more prohibition. Once again, I would like to remind Alaskans we voted to regulate marijuana like alcohol, and that law enforcement has means of identifying and prosecuting marijuana related DUI’s. If we trust bartenders to educate and intervene when members of the public are about to make poor decisions, I think we should trust and allow budtenders to do the same. I know we educate and intervene at my shop, that’s a part of having a Marijuana Handlers Permit (MPH), just like your TAPS card.
By now you’re probably asking yours why doesn’t blood nanogram testing work? It took decades of research before we came up with a .08 blood level for alcohol. Alcohol is water soluble which means it when it is measured in the brain, lungs, or blood it is consistent and accurate way of measuring alcohol intoxication. Because of the water solubility of alcohol, it saturates the body evenly. Marijuana is not water soluble, to be more specific cannabinoids are not water soluble, THC being one of many cannabinoids. They are lipid soluble, or as most of us say “it binds to fats”. This is why we cook cannabis in butter or coconut oil to help us create creative edible creations. Once cannabis flower has been decarboxylated and bound to a fat it can be easily consumed by the body and produce a lengthy euphoria. This is also why athletes can test positive years after having consumed last, THC binds to the fats in our body and when we burn fats the metabolite of THC shows up and this is what we test for in urinalysis.
When it comes to blood saturation we have a problem, when a consumer is at the height of their euphoria that is when it is at its lowest concentrations in the blood stream. The brain being a fatty organ with neurotransmitters that THC and other cannabinoids bind to. Using a nanogram blood testing is just not the mechanism for testing for marijuana DUI’s. Neither is urinalysis in a recreational state because that also is not a great indicator of when a person has last consumed only that they have consumed in the past week to months. As an industry we have started to look at other means of testing but to the government’s best efforts it will not be because of blood saturation levels.
So here we are, if you live in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough don’t expect onsite consumption for years to come. And when we get that privilege back it won’t be because the State of Alaska has blood nanogram limits. It will be because of an initiative started by residents or an assembly members fight that will change this for all of us residents. Once again, we fight for our rights as humans, the prohibition continues and so does my advocacy.