Delaware’s Governor John Carney (D) has given his first public comments on a bill to legalize marijuana that was sent to his desk last week.
He noted the legislation’s limited scope but said he has remaining concerns and declining to say specifically whether he intends to sign it.
Carney agrees that using cannabis shouldn’t be a “criminal offense,” adding that the bill passed in the legislature “just decriminalizes.”
“It doesn’t have a regulatory piece that goes with it,” he told WMDT. “So we’re looking at the same concerns that I’ve been articulating for some time with respect to public safety and its effect on our young people, and we’ll continue to keep those in mind.”
The bill now on the governor’s desk is narrowly tailored. It removes all criminal penalties associated with possession and sharing of up to one ounce of marijuana between adults 21 and older, but advocates consider that to be a form on non-commercial legalization.
Possession of up to one ounces of marijuana is already currently decriminalized in the state, punishable by a civil fine and no threat of jail time under a law that was enacted in 2015.
Carney signed a bill in 2019 that expanded the policy to apply to those under 21, too, though they face escalating civil penalties for subsequent offenses.
A spokesperson for the Governor’s office previously said that they will “review the bill, but the governor’s position hasn’t changed.”
Carney said as recently as last year that he doesn’t support legalization in part because he believes marijuana can be a gateway drug to more dangerous illicit substances.
“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,” he said at the time. “Look, I don’t want to sound like a prude about it, I just don’t think it’s a good idea.”
The governor also said that his assessment of other states that have enacted legalization is that “it just doesn’t seem to me to be a very positive thing from the strength of the community, of the economy in their states. Is it the worst thing in the world? No, of course not.”
