Delaware Governor Dodges Question About Vetoing Marijuana Legalization Bills

The Democratic governor of Delaware won’t say whether he plans to sign or veto a pair of bills the legislature sent to his desk this week to legalize marijuana and establish a regulated adult-use market.

Advocates are closely watching to see if Gov. John Carney (D) will again exercise his veto authority to quash cannabis legalization, as he did last year.

Asked on Wednesday whether he could give a “hint” about his current thinking about the reform measures that the Senate passed on Tuesday, Carney said, “No, I’d rather focus on” his administration’s efforts to improve roadway safety.

“Obviously I’m concerned mostly about unintended consequences of legalization, including highway safety,” the governor told NBC Philadelphia.

I did ask Delaware Governor if he was ready to give me a hint if he will sign or again veto recreational marijuana laws that just passed. Spoiler alert- he wasn’t ready to tell me. #netde@NBCPhiladelphiapic.twitter.com/muzWU7Y3yf

— Tim Furlong (@tfurlong) March 29, 2023

A spokesperson for Carney made similar comments, telling Marijuana Moment on Tuesday that the governor “continues to have strong concerns about the unintended consequences of legalizing marijuana for recreational use in our state, especially about the impacts on our young people and highway safety.”

“He knows others have honest disagreements on this issue,” the communications director said. “But we don’t have anything new to share today about how the governor will act on HB 1 and HB 2 if they reach his desk.”

While the House didn’t have the votes to override Carney last year, both the simple legalization bill and the sales regulation measure cleared both chambers this round with more than enough support to override any potential veto.

Rep. Ed Osienski (D), sponsor of the bills, took a similar, bifurcated approach for the reform last session and saw the legislature pass the basic legalization proposal while narrowly defeating the regulatory measure.

The lawmaker recently said that if the governor seeks to veto the legislation again this time, he’s “optimistic” and feels “pretty good” that they have the votes for an override.

“I think my colleagues are saying, ‘OK, you know, you had one shot at vetoing this, you did and you were successful, but don’t count on us supporting that veto again,’” he said.

Here’s what the HB 1 legalization bill would accomplish: 

State statute would be revised to legalize the possession, use, sharing and purchasing of up to one ounce of cannabis for adults 21 and older.

To avoid abuses of the “gifting” provision, the bill stipulates that “adult sharing” would not include giving away cannabis “contemporaneously with another reciprocal transaction between the same parties” such as an exchange of a non-marijuana item.

Public consumption and growing cannabis would remain prohibited.

People under 21 who engage in such activity would be subject to a civil penalty of up to $100 for a first offense. Police could use discretion and issue a citation in lieu of that fine, however.

Here’s an overview of the key provisions of the HB 2 regulatory bill: 

The legislation would provide a basic framework to create a regulated system of cannabis commerce for adults in the state.

The Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Enforcement (DATE) would be responsible for regulating the market through a new Office of Marijuana Control Commissioner.

For the first 16 months of implementation, regulators could approve up to 30 cannabis retail licenses.

Applicants who show that they’d provide a living wage, health insurance coverage, sick and paid leave and focus on diversity in hiring would be prioritized in the licensing scoring process.

Seven percent of marijuana business fee revenue would go to a “Justice Reinvestment Fund” that supports restorative justice, workforce development, technical assistance for economically disadvantaged people and more.

That fund would also go toward “creating or developing technology to assist with the restoration of civil rights and expungement of criminal records.” However, the legislation itself doesn’t provide for automatic expungements.

In additional to conventional retail, cultivator, manufacturer and laboratory licenses, the bill would additional provide for social equity and microbusiness licenses (reserved for applicants with majority ownership by Delaware residents).

Localities would be able to prohibit marijuana businesses from operating in their area through ordinance.

Adult-use marijuana sales would be subject to a 15 percent sales tax. Medical cannabis products would not be taxed.

—Marijuana Moment is tracking more than 1,000 cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments.Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on Patreon to get access.—

Shortly after the House passed the latest versions of the legalization measures last week, the Senate approved a resolution that urges the state’s congressional representatives to support legislation to end federal cannabis prohibition.

Separately, in October, Carney vetoed a more narrowly tailored bill that would have clarified that medical marijuana patients are not prohibited from buying, possessing or transferring firearms under state law

A strong majority of Delaware voters support legalizing marijuana—including nearly three in four Democrats who back the reform that the state’s Democratic governor vetoed last year, according to a poll released that month.

South Carolina Medical Marijuana Legalization Bill’s Fate In Question, But Supporters Are Making A Last-Ditch Push

Delaware Marijuana Legalization Vote Delayed In House As Lawmakers Review Amendments

A vote on a Delaware marijuana legalization bill that was scheduled in the House of Representatives for Thursday has been cancelled, despite attempts by the sponsor to propose amendments to reach the three-fifths supermajority support threshold needed to pass it.

Rep. Edward Osienski (D), who filed the measure, said lawmakers need more time to consider a series of proposed changes before reaching a consensus and moving forward.

“House Bill 150 is an extremely important piece of legislation with many complicated moving parts,” he told WDEL. “In recent days, a number of amendments have been filed by myself and other legislators that would make significant changes to the bill as written. Accordingly, my colleagues and I need time to consider the implications of these various amendments before bringing the bill to the House floor for a vote.”

Yesterday, the bill’s sponsor Rep. Osienski told me it was “uncertain” whether the marijuana bill had the votes. #netde

— Amy Cherry (@acherry13) June 10, 2021

“This is one piece of legislation that we have to get right,” he said. “I encourage my fellow legislators, advocates and supporters of the bill to please be patient as we continue to work toward the goal of legalizing marijuana for adult recreational use in Delaware.”

Olivia Naugle, a legislative analyst with the Marijuana Policy Project, said advocates are “hopeful that lawmakers will be able to come to an agreement on the details and bring HB 150 to a floor vote as soon as possible.”

The legislation could be rescheduled for consideration as soon as next week.

In an apparent effort to build buy-in among legislators, Osienski introduced several amendments on Tuesday, including some that would gut key social equity provisions. One proposed revision would eliminate language to establish a fund to provide financial assistance to equity businesses.

Instead, regulators would simply have “authority to investigate opportunities for financial assistances that can be offered to social equity applicants,” but there’s no guarantee that would happen if they’re not mandated by the legislature to do so as under the original language.

Sources familiar with Osienski’s thinking told Marijuana Moment change is aimed at circumventing the need for an even greater supermajority vote of three-fourths for legislation that appropriates money. While the provision as introduced didn’t actually allocate any dollars, there was concern in the legislature that creation of the fund could trigger the bigger threshold and sink the bill.

The definition of a social equity applicant also would be changed under a separate amendment from Osienski, making it so that having a prior cannabis conviction, or being related to someone who has, would no longer qualify a person for the benefits.

Some advocates strongly oppose watering down the equity language, but it seems the sponsor made some of the concessions to try to reach the existing supermajority vote needed to pass the legislation out of the chamber and on to the Senate.

Even if the legislature does move forward and approve it, the bill is expected to face another challenge: Gov. John Carney (D), who again called legalization a “bad idea” this week and declined to say what action he would take if a reform proposal was sent to his desk.

House Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf (D), who has previously abstained from voting on legalization legislation in an earlier session, also said on Tuesday that he has “no sense” about the bill’s prospects of passage in the chamber and raised concerns about the implications of legalization on the jobs market.

House Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf says he has "no sense" over whether the recreational marijuana bill on the agenda for Thursday will pass. He has concerns, saying it will cause a problem in the jobs/labor market. #netDE

— Amy Cherry (@acherry13) June 8, 2021

Osienski’s legislation would allow adults 21 and older to purchase and possess up to one ounce of cannabis. Home cultivation would not be permitted, however.

The proposal cleared its first committee in March and then, last week, it moved through the House Appropriations Committee.

—Marijuana Moment is already tracking more than 1,100 cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments.Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on Patreon to get access.—

HB 150 would set a 15 percent sales tax on marijuana sales, with revenue covering the administrative costs of the adult-use program. The legislature would then decide how the remaining tax dollars should be appropriated.

The Delaware Marijuana Control Act Oversight Committee would be established to regulate the market and issue business licenses.

Regulators would be able to approve up to 30 retail business licenses, 30 manufacturing licenses, 60 cultivation licenses and five laboratory testing licenses for the first 16 months of implementation.

A legalization bill previously received majority support on the House floor in 2018, but it failed to receive the supermajority needed to pass.

Carney, for his part, is a rare type of Democratic governor who remains opposed to recreational cannabis legalization, and he reiterated that position just last month.

“We spend all this time and money to get people to stop smoking cigarettes and now we want to say it’s okay to just smoke marijuana recreationally,” Carney said. “Look, I don’t want to sound like a prude about it, I just don’t think it’s a good idea.”

Despite his wariness about adult-use legalization, Carney did sign two pieces of marijuana expungement legislation in recent years. In 2017 and 2018, a state task force met to discuss issues related to legalization, and the governor hosted a series of roundtable meetings about cannabis.

Carney’s predecessor approved a measure to decriminalize simple possession of cannabis in 2015.

The legislation that was originally set for floor action on Thursday has proved contentious in a different kind of way, as well.

In April, activists in the state mounted a boycott against four medical cannabis operators after representatives of those companies testified in opposition to the adult-use legalization bill during its March committee hearing.

An analysis from State Auditor Kathy McGuiness (D) released in January found that Delaware could generate upwards of $43 million annually in revenue from regulating marijuana and imposing a 20 percent excise tax. The legal market could also create more than 1,000 new jobs over five years if the policy is enacted, according to the report.

Bill To Let Researchers Study Marijuana From Dispensaries Approved In Congressional Committee