The Alaska Medical Marijuana Program is embodied in Ballot Measure No. 8, which was approved by the voters on November 3, 1998, and made effective on March 4, 1999. The law removed state-level criminal penalties on the use, possession, and cultivation by qualifying patients who had been certified by a physician as having a debilitating medical condition who might benefit from the medical use of marijuana.
Since its approval, the law has undergone major amendments. The first was Senate Bill 94, which was made effective June 2, 1999, which prescribes that patients and their primary caregivers have to enroll in the state patient registry and must possess valid identification cards to have legal protection for their use of medical marijuana.
The law was further updated through the Alaska Statute Title 17, Chapter 37, which created a confidential statewide registry of medical marijuana patients and designated caregivers and established registry identification cards. Registration to the program is mandatory and does not accept registry identification cards from other states which operate their own medical marijuana program.
The Program is administered by the Department of Health and Social Services, Division of Public Health, Marijuana Registry.
Caregiver Laws
A designated caregiver is a person other than the patient’s physician who assumes significant responsibility in managing the well-being of a patient who has been diagnosed with debilitating medical condition.
The caregiver must be identified by the patient as either primary caregiver or alternate caregiver, and he can perform as such for only one patient at a time. Caregivers may simultaneously serve two or more patients, provided that they are related to the caregiver by at least the fourth degree of kinship either by marriage or blood relation.
An individual person may be designated as primary caregiver or alternate caregiver for a qualifying patient if the person submits a sworn statement on a form provided by the department declaring that the person:
- Is at least 21 years of age;
- Has never been convicted of a drug-related felony offense or a law/ordinance of another jurisdiction with elements similar to such offense; and
- Is not currently on probation or parole from this or another jurisdiction.
- The name, address, date of birth, and copy of his Alaska driver’s license or identification card number of the designated caregiver if a caregiver is identified at the time of the patient’s application.
Dispensary Laws
The Alaska Medical Marijuana does not provide for the operation of dispensaries. The qualifying patient or his primary caregiver is authorized by law to grow/cultivate his own marijuana for medical use up to six marijuana plants, with no more than three mature and flowering plants producing usable marijuana at a given time.
Growing Laws
The Alaska Medical Marijuana Act allows the registered qualifying patient to cultivate/grow six marijuana plants, with no more than three mature and flowering plants producing usable marijuana at a given time. If the patient has specified and authorized a primary caregiver to cultivate marijuana for him, the caregiver can cultivate the same quantity of marijuana plants at any one time for each qualifying patient.
The cultivation of the marijuana plants either by the qualifying patient or the primary caregiver must be kept in an enclosed locked facility.