March 26, 2026, by Michael Armstrong

Special to The Seward Folly

Following a sometimes emotional public hearing on restricting marijuana establishments in Seward, the Seward City Council at its Monday meeting passed an ordinance limiting the number of cannabis businesses to two. Ordinance 2026-004 also prohibits future drive-through pot purchases or outdoor consumption of cannabis at a retail store.

“I want to thank you for bringing forward this ordinance as an effort to protect public health while balancing economic growth,” said Maya Moriarty, one of several people testifying in favor of the ordinance.

The prohibitions an onsite consumption and walk-up or drive-through sales would not apply to current marijuana establishments that had conditional use permits before March 1 — that is, the Tufted Puffin. On Dec. 2, 2025, the Seward Planning Commission granted a CUP for The Tufted Puffin to allow walk-up or drive-through sales. Crowd packs Seward Chambers as Tuffed Puffin drive-thru window approved.

On Jan. 5, the council, acting as a Board of Adjustment, denied an appeal of that CUP. Tufted Puffin drive-thru cannabis permit upheld after appeals and public hearing in Seward

On a motion from Council Member Mike Calhoon — who introduced the ordinance —  the council also passed an amendment further restricting marijuana establishments. That amendment changed from allowing establishments outright to requiring a conditional use permit in the office residential, auto commercial, harbor commercial and central business zoning districts.

In public testimony, several people spoke on the potency of modern commercial strains. 

“I’ve smoked pot since 1964 — sorry, Chief,” said Bruce Jaffa, looking over at Seward Police Chief Louis Tiner. “But I’ve given it up, because when marijuana laws were loosened, the strength of marijuana was much, much different. …  It’s not the same. It’s almost loose, energetic. I think that it borders on dangerous.” 

Ristine Casagranda echoed Jaffa.

“This marijuana potency that we’re selling right now is scary, and I don’t know about coming to government and asking government to help me, but I’m going everywhere I can and asking for help, because this is out of control.”

In council discussion, Calhoon explained why he introduced the ordinance. It came about after listening to public testimony at Planning and Zoning Commission and other meetings, he said.

“One of the the big things that came through was ‘How do we want our community to look, what kind of a community do we want to have? Do we want to have a marijuana shop on every corner?’” Calhoon said. “Do we want to be when you drive through Anchorage, or you drive through Kenai or Soldotna and you see multitudes of these? Is that what we want for our community? And the answer, pretty much, was, ‘No, we don’t.’ And so that’s what drove me to bring this forward.”

Calhoon said he understood the concerns about marijuana potency. 

“We probably need a little bit more time to look at as far as THC concentrations and strengths,” he said. “And I understand, you know, this, the psychosis is a real thing. We’ve had a lot of reports from around the country with that.”

There are a lot of issues with marijuana regulation the council can look at, Calhoon said.

“But this ordinance wasn’t designed or brought forward to address all of those things. Those are things that we can address and we can do more in Title Eight and change a lot of that. This ordinance was simply to not allow any more marijuana licenses to be issued in city limits of any kind.”

Council Member Robert Barnwell said he agreed that extending the scope of the ordinance to look at things like potency would complicate things.

“We hear you,” he said. “I personally feel that a lot of that testimony is relevant and valid. We just have to do it right. And, for instance, potency is relative thing, so that’s pretty hard to figure that one out, but we need to do that. And I think down the road, we can start chipping away at these things, and I think we should. So thanks for the testimony, and we hear you.”

Michael Armstrong is a retired journalist currently volunteering as the editor of the Homer Independent Press. Reach him at wordfolk@gmail.com.

The Seward Folly co-publisher Robert Barnwell is a current member of the Seward City Council, but he did not participate in the editing of this story.