Advocates for recreational marijuana in Delaware ‘optimistic’ this is the year

Delaware lawmakers who support legalizing recreational marijuana are taking a run at it for the sixth straight year, and the lead sponsor says he’s “feeling optimistic.”

First introduced in 2017, a bill to legalize weed fell four votes short of passage in the Delaware House of Representatives in 2018 but since then has not reached the floor of the House or Senate.

Lead sponsor Rep. Ed Osienski, a Newark-area Democrat, pointed out that it’s no longer a crime in Delaware to have up to an ounce of marijuana, and that medical pot has been available for a decade.

So, in his view, and that of 27 other Democratic co-sponsors in the 62-member General Assembly, it’s about time that anyone 21 and older should be able to go to a licensed store and buy up to an ounce of weed to smoke or ingest in gummy or tablet form.

Sales would be taxed at 15% and home growing would not be permitted under the bill.

Osienski and other advocates note that marijuana is now legal in 18 states, including neighboring New Jersey, though the two other border states — Pennsylvania and Maryland — have not approved it.

Osienski says changes made to his bill since last year could finally get it over the hurdle. The key change is the removal of a provision that provided taxpayer-funded assistance to help prospective vendors or growers who have been arrested previously on pot charges. [Read more at WHYY]