Advocating to legalize cannabis

Support for cannabis legalization is past the tipping point. The Legislature must not delay any longer on this issue and pass HB 305, the improved version of the Delaware Marijuana Control Act. 

It is time for our representatives to represent us and legalize cannabis. Public support for adult-use legalization in Delaware is around two-thirds of the electorate, with majority support from all segments of the political spectrum. It is rare to have an issue, in this partisan age, on which all political parties and ideologies agree, but ending the senseless failure of cannabis prohibition is one. More importantly, a great majority of this support is from those who do not consume cannabis, as 18.5 percent of Delaware adults admit to being cannabis consumers [poll: SAMHSA 2020].  

Despite passing so-called decriminalization in 2015, Delaware continues to cite and/or arrest more than 5,000 citizens for non-felony cannabis possession every year. Shamefully, this number has increased yearly. Every year, Delaware wastes around $20 million prosecuting simple possession cannabis cases. Every week without legalization brings 100 more Delawareans into expensive, harmful contact with the criminal justice system; this for a policy that is greatly disapproved of by the public. Not only that, but the enforcement of prohibition is racially biased, affecting non-whites at four times the rate of white residents, despite nearly identical usage rates. 

And we must ask what prohibition has accomplished, other than to fill our jails and ruin lives. With more than 150,000 admitted cannabis consumers in Delaware, it is clear that whatever the perceived problems are, we cannot arrest our way out of cannabis consumption. Not only is a newer approach necessary, it also has strong public approval. As with the two other legal recreational drugs, alcohol and nicotine, public health programs are more effective than arrests.

Opponents like to pretend that cannabis usage in Delaware is currently near zero and that legalization will create multitudes of new users and concurrent problems. This cannot be more false. We have data from 18 other states from which to make good policy choices; these data show that consumption increases only slightly after legalization. This means that any cannabis-related problems are already here and will not significantly increase. 

The data belie the prohibitionists’ claims: Teen usage does not go up (it declines), DUI problems remain statistically constant, hard drug use does not increase (it declines), workplace problems do not increase.

Legalization brings significant benefits:

• It protects consumers who choose a non-toxic alternative to alcohol

• It creates many new businesses and thousands of jobs

• It creates needed revenue and saves money for the state

• It increases public safety by reducing the illicit drug market and its crime

• It improves consumer safety by strict licensing, testing, labeling and handling requirements

• It prevents teen access by carding requirements

• It frees law enforcement resources to tackle unsolved violent and property crimes

• It keeps otherwise law-abiding citizens out of the criminal justice system

• It removes the “I smell weed” excuse police use to violate Fourth Amendment rights.

Delaware must not wait. Every day that passes means more pointless arrests, more money wasted, more lives ruined. Every day that passes profits drug cartels over legitimate businesses. With New Jersey and Virginia already legal, Maryland on the verge, and Pennsylvania seriously considering it, Delaware will lose by being an island of prohibition in a sea of enlightened legalization. We must pass HB305 immediately.

Mark Jacobs is a resident of Lewes and a legalization advocate from The Delaware Cannabis Advocacy Network.