The City of Kodiak will take a slow and steady approach to marijuana regulation. The Kodiak City Council held a work session Tuesday night to focus on the final recommendations from the city’s marijuana advisory committee.
Randy Bishop and Laura Arboleda are the two youngest members of the council and both sit on the marijuana advisory committee.
Bishop presented their suggestions to the city council last night, and said it might be a good idea for the advisory committee to meet again in a year to check in.
We’re taking a conservative approach. We don’t want to just open the doors and have a flood of mistrials and mishaps. And this right now will just cover the basis of letting people get into this… and a year from now we’ll see what works, what doesn’t work.”
Council members generally voiced support of that approach, especially with regard to some of the more controversial, yet profitable, forms of marijuana, such as edibles.
Edibles are a big market in the growing marijuana industry, but many have argued against them due to how easily marijuana candy or baked goods could be confused with regular products.
City Mayor Pat Branson agreed that they might want to leave the option open.
“I think wait and see is a good line to use right now with everything being so new, but also what you’re saying Randy is also to allow some opportunities for people and not just shut the door.”
Bishop also pointed out that few people have filed for licenses so far, and it doesn’t look like the city will be overwhelmed with new applications anytime soon.
With that in mind, the council chose to take the ‘wait and see’ attitude to both edibles and an excise tax moving forward. The city is still looking into a possible marijuana fee or tax and figuring out how it might look for the city versus the borough.