This week was very busy in the Capitol. The Ketchikan Legislative Liaison Fly-In came to Juneau this week, which kept me and my staff very busy. The Fly-In is an opportunity for city and borough officials, as well as various community representatives to speak with lawmakers and other state officials. They had an action-packed schedule that allowed them to meet with a number of different department and administration officials.
Last week the House Energy Committee heard HB 306, which is the State Energy Policy bill. As I have mentioned before on my blog, the State Energy Policy was created with a variety of interests from the bottom up. HB 306 is an innovative piece of legislation because it involved a number of different stakeholder groups and agencies, most of who have experience providing energy to Alaskans. I proposed an amendment to HB 306 to ensure that Alaskan’s energy needs are met before exporting power for profit. It is important that we provide affordable energy to our own people first before fulfilling the energy needs of other outside interests. I am not opposed to export projects, but I believe we can revisit that idea once the needs of our communities are met and there is an energy surplus. This amendment was added to HB 306 and the bill was passed out of committee. It was referred to the House Resources committee, which Alaska’s public lawmaking process will continue.
Speaking of our public lawmaking process, HB 36 was heard in the House Finance Committee on Monday. This bill focuses on ballot initiative reform so that Alaska’s laws, whether made by the legislature or made by the people through the citizen’s initiative, are made with integrity and transparency. Alaskan’s deserve this. I hope that HB 36 will be heard in House Finance next week, but I will keep you posted.
Last Friday I introduced legislation to strengthen Alaska’s anti-drug laws. HB 327 would classify “salvia divinorum” a schedule II-A drug. Salvia is drug similar to mescaline, peyote, and LSD and can be purchased legally in Alaska – it is my feeling that this cannot continue. This proposed legislation would also require those who buy products containing dextromethorphan (DXM) to be at least 18 years old or have a prescription from a doctor to do so. DXM is a common ingredient in over-the-counter cough suppressants that teens take in large doses (20 to 30 times the recommended dosage) to get high. Severe health risks occur because of other ingredients in the cough suppressants such as acetaminophen. I was approached by constituents in Ketchikan regarding these two substances and was convinced that our anti-drug laws had to be updated to reflect today’s issues and drug abuse trends.
Best,
