HB 117 Summary

• Renames the "Marijuana Control Board" to the "Cannabis Control Board" throughout Alaska statutes and increases board membership from five to seven voting members, adding positions for someone with plant production/chemistry background and a second cannabis industry representative.

• Increases personal possession limits for adults 21+ from one ounce to six ounces of cannabis and from six plants to six cannabis plants (with no more than three mature flowering plants), while maintaining restrictions on public consumption and workplace use.

• Reduces the excise tax on cannabis sales from $50 per ounce to $12.50 per ounce and establishes new three percent sales tax on retail cannabis sales and 10.5 percent import tax on wholesale cannabis importation beginning July 1, 2028.

• Changes cannabis establishment registration from annual to biennial and repeals the industrial hemp program, consolidating cannabis and hemp regulations under a single framework with updated terminology.

• Authorizes postsecondary educational institutions to conduct cannabis research and educational programs, including retail sales as part of those programs, and requires the Department of Environmental Conservation to research cost-effective in-state testing methods for cannabis.