DOVER — The legalization of recreational marijuana passed another hurdle in the House of Representatives’ Appropriations Committee on Thursday, and it now awaits debate in the full House.

The Delaware Cannabis Advocacy Network and Delaware NORML are calling for House Bill 305 to be scheduled for a vote when the General Assembly reconvenes in March, according to a release Friday.

“We are hoping that HB305 moves just as quickly as the set of alcohol bills recently moved that further loosen Delaware’s alcohol laws,” said Zoë Patchell, executive director of Delaware CAN. “And we hope to garner the same support from all the legislators who co-sponsored and supported those bills.”

That legislation, HB 289 and HB 290, was introduced around the same time, mid-January, as the marijuana proposal but have already passed both chambers with near-unanimous support and were signed into law by Gov. John Carney this month. The laws permanently legalize takeout and curbside alcoholic beverages, originally introduced at the start of the pandemic on a sunset provision.

And because HB 305 would change an existing law, rather than creating a new one, it will require a three-fifths supermajority to pass, unlike the many simple-majority, alcohol-related bills that have passed.

Ms. Patchell noted that alcohol was once under prohibition, too, and that lessons can be learned by drawing comparisons to marijuana legalization. She emphasized that there is a vast amount of research to prove that cannabis is safer than alcohol, which causes many more severe short- and long-term effects.

“Prohibition laws have been unsuccessful in reducing the use, supply or demand of either alcohol or cannabis,” she said. “(They have) only created an illicit market that places consumers and communities in danger.”