there is a risk that they could be shut down through local bans.

Bloom called that attitude "cavalier," and said it would be "tragic" for business owners to lose their livelihoods.

Kenai

Meanwhile on the Kenai Peninsula, voters will also head to the polls in October with a decision to make on marijuana. Mlynarik, chair of the state's Marijuana Control Board, gathered signatures to get the ban on the ballot. Last year, a state assistant attorney general said that he hadn't committed any ethics violations in doing so. Conflict of interest concerns only arise in Alaska's Executive Branch Ethics Act when there's a significant financial interest.

In 2014, the vote on legalized marijuana was much closer there than in Fairbanks, with varying results by district, the Peninsula Clarion reported at the time.

Citiesin the borough, like Kenai and Homer, won't be affected by the outcome. In Soldotna, the city council introduced an ordinance in late August that would ban the marijuana industry, KDLL public radio reported. It will be up for public discussion in mid-September.

Blain Gilman, a former Kenai Peninsula Borough assembly member, is the spokesperson for the group sponsoring the initiative. Unlike in Fairbanks, the group has not filed with the Alaska Public Offices Commission. He said there's been no need; they haven't spent any money.

"My largest focus is teenagers and children," Gilman said. "I think it's a very harmful substance for children."

Amy Jackson is the chair of the "Keep Cannabis Legal" campaign in Kenai. Jackson does not own a marijuana business.

"Through the years I have learned the facts,