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Alcohol & Marijuana Control Office

Alcohol Local Option

Local Option Restrictions

The Alaska State Legislature has enacted laws that provide a method for communities to control and impose certain limits on the availability of alcohol in a community. The "local option" laws are found in Title 4 of the Alaska Statutes and Title 3 of the Alaska Administrative Code (AAC), and provide the method for either a municipality or an established village to impose these limits. The law requires community involvement through the petition and "local option" election process.

If a community decides not to allow alcoholic beverages, it is called a dry community. If the community allows limited amounts of alcoholic beverages, it is called a “damp” community. The rest of this page discusses acquiring alcoholic beverages in damp communities.

If you live in a local option “damp” community

Damp communities enforce limits on alcoholic beverages carried into the community, and the State of Alaska enforces limits on alcoholic beverages purchased by mail from package stores. You may need a permit from your community government to buy and/or possess alcoholic beverages.

People in the community will check your alcoholic beverages when you enter the community, and the State of Alaska keeps track of purchases made by mail from package stores.

All package stores which are authorized to ship liquor to local option communities record every sale from a Local Option community into a state-wide database. The stores can tell when you are at your monthly limit, and will not ship more than your limit. All of the stores share their information, so you can buy from more than one store.

Purchase by written order

If you would like to order by mail and have the beverages shipped to your community you have a few steps to go through.

  1. Find a package store which ships to your community.
  2. Contact the store and have them create an account for you.
  3. Order in writing. Be certain you sign the letter and include your ID Number.

Current list of local option communities - 03/13/2024

Current Map of local option communities

Information for Package Stores accepting Written Orders