A decade after Alaska voters legalized recreational cannabis, the Alaska Legislature is advancing the first major change to the law that opened commercial sales here. On Friday, the Alaska House of Representatives voted to change the state's $50 per ounce cannabis tax to a 7% sales tax.
If House Bill 119 is accepted by the Senate and Gov. Mike Dunleavy, it would impose Alaska's first statewide sales tax. That pioneering concept troubled some legislators, but the bill still passed the House by a 36-3 vote.
The tax change was recommended by the state's recreational cannabis task force, which Dunleavy convened in 2022 to analyze the cannabis industry and determine whether aspects of the industry's enabling law — passed by voters in 2014 — should be changed.
Ten years ago, Alaska joined Oregon as the third and fourth states to legalize recreational cannabis use. Since then, many other states have followed suit, but Alaska's cannabis tax — levied at the wholesale level — is the highest in the country.
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