Delaware Marijuana Task Force to Vote on Recreational Marijuana

On February 28, the Delaware Marijuana Task Force will vote to determine whether to endorse its final report. The task force’s job was to study recreational marijuana legalization and provide a recommendation to lawmakers. Their recommendation may help decide if efforts to legalize marijuana are viable in the state.

It’s uncertain whether the task force will endorse its findings, according to Delaware Online. The task force is comprised of 25-members. There are members supporting and opposing legalization on the panel, along with a few public officials. Some public officials have remained neutral on the topic.

Representative Helene Keeley said, “I think it’s the fair thing to do. I believe there should be enough votes for it to pass.”

Governor Carney is not on board with legalization. He’d prefer to continue studying how other states have been impacted before moving forward. He also says that working on a full implementation of medical marijuana and decriminalization should be the focus.

The draft report is 15-pages long. Some recommendations included would allow individual municipalities to make local regulations regarding legalization. They’d also be allowed to ban the way products look (such as not making cartoon character-looking candies and such). Funding would be in place for law enforcement training and marijuana law enforcement. The recommendations also include a clarification process to determine if someone is driving stoned.

Some argue that not all of the concerns regarding legalization have been addressed.

Cathy Rossi of AAA Mid-Atlantic said, “The draft report fails to go far enough and skims the surface of an extremely complex issue. We can’t ignore the experiences of other states that have implemented this, and the report does not include some of those experiences.”

The debate is expected to be a heated one as those opposing legalization want more information.