Several fliers have recently been posted on bulletin boards downtown advertising a “community pot garden” in the vacant Walmart building off Glacier Highway.
“Former superstore means lots of room!” the fliers read. “Communal care brings back the ‘60s!”
The fliers also promote “expert advice” and “24-hour armed security.” Unfortunately for any aspiring growers, one thing the fliers don’t advertise is a contact number for any interested parties. And nobody in Juneau’s cannabis community seems to know who is behind them.
“I thought that was kind of strange when I saw it; it definitely caught me off-guard,” said James Barrett, co-owner of Rainforest Farms LLC, a cannabis business in Juneau. Barrett also serves as an administrator for Southeast Alaska Cannabis Culture, a Facebook group “to post anything cannabis related.
But if these fliers still have your green thumb itching, prepare to be disappointed. The empty big-box store won’t be returning anybody to the era of flower power as advertised.
Walmart spokesperson Delia Garcia told the Empire that though the company is still actively marketing the property, a community pot garden “would be inconsistent with how Walmart has re-tenanted its properties in the past.”
Garcia wouldn’t comment further on the flier, nor would she confirm whether anybody had approached the company about turning the building into a community garden.
Regardless of what Walmart has in store for its former Juneau location, repurposing it as the fliers suggest wouldn’t work.
“I don’t see any way a community pot garden could be possible in Walmart,” Loren Jones told the Empire Friday morning.
Jones is a member of the Juneau Assembly and the Alaska Marijuana Control Board. He doesn’t speak for either organization, but being involved with each has allowed him to familiarize himself with the state’s marijuana regulations, which he said would prohibit the proposed pot garden.
House Bill 75, a marijuana bill that worked its way through the state House and Senate during the legislative session, became effective under state law Thursday. It allows each Alaska resident at least 21 years old to grow up to six marijuana plants — only three of which can be mature — in his or her home. But it caps the total number of plants allowed in one household at 12.
This means that even if three or more people, all of whom were older than 21, were sharing a house, they still couldn’t grow more than a dozen plants. (The law also dictates that only six of those could be mature at one time.)
This is the first of many problems with the pot garden proposal.
If somebody were to buy Walmart, which is currently for sale with an asking price of $2.5 million, he or she would only be able to grow 12 marijuana plants in the massive 121,640-square-foot facility. That’s one heck of a power bill for a dozen plants.
“The limit of 12 plants alone would eliminate that,” Jones said of the community garden. “It would have to be a full-blown commercial operation.”
But even then, the garden wouldn’t be able to function like most community gardens because each person involved in the operation would need the marijuana handler permit required by state law. Each gardener would also have to be employed by whomever owned the whole operation in order to grow in the building.
The real kicker, though, is that no one would be able to take his or her crop home at the end of the day. State regulations prohibit commercial growers from distributing their products to any person or entity other than another licensed business, be it a retailer or a processor.
It’s unlikely that Alaskans will see community marijuana gardens in the former big-box store or anywhere else without substantial changes to the law.
• Contact reporter Sam DeGrave at 523-2279 or sam.degrave@juneauempire.com.
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