Why Anchorage Doesn’t Have Any Dispensaries Open Yet

Questions about why Anchorage doesn’t have a recreational marijuana dispensary open yet are circulating. Dispensaries, or shops, are already open in Juneau, Fairbanks and Valdez. Anchorage residents will likely have a few weeks more of waiting and wishing.

Shop owners are preparing their spaces, according to Alaska Public Media. Enlighten Alaska is set to open in the Spenard neighborhood. Their space is already painted and shelving is in-place.

Jane Stinson, a co-owner of Enlighten Alaska, said, “This room is where we’ll be selling most of our marijuana products, in fact all of them.” Over the Thanksgiving holiday Enlighten Alaska was robbed. Stinson said, “Everything that had a plug was gone, which was mostly construction equipment.”

The setback requires that repairs and getting back to compliance standards first. Stinson said, “We have to come up to compliance, and it’s costing a lot of money to make sure that we have enough parking, snow removal, gates around our dumpsters and those kinds of things.”

Building codes underwent changes in 2013, meaning there are more requirements to meet now when a different type of business takes over a space. An issue that Stinson is working to correct is parking. She said, “The problem is that we have parking for maybe two cars here.“

Even with Enlighten Alaska’s individual issues, getting buildings up to the new codes and standards is what is holding up the show.

There is good news though, despite the compliance standards, two other retail marijuana shops are set to open by year’s end. Dankorage and Alaska Fireweed both expect to be open within a couple of weeks.