I oppose legalizing recreational marijuana.
My chief concern is that making marijuana legal in the First State will have a harmful impact on our teenagers and young adults.
The latest version of the legalization legislation (House Bill 372) would set the minimum age to buy and use marijuana at 21 years old. Although younger Delawareans will be barred from being legal consumers, I believe many will gain easy access to it, either through misguided adults making straw purchases on their behalf or parents leaving cannabis products unsecured. It has happened with alcohol, and it seems likely these same social mechanisms would be in play with marijuana.
The developing brain
In one analysis by Dr. Christian Hopfer with the University of Colorado, the implications of marijuana legalization on adolescent usage were examined. He concluded legalization could hike teen usage due to increased availability, greater social acceptance and the introduction of new edible and vaping products. He also observed it is unknown what effects different patterns of adolescent use would later have on cognition, school performance and the development of new or continuing substance abuse.
A 2019 study published in Missouri Medicine looked at the impacts of Colorado legalization, which implemented its recreational-marijuana law six years earlier. One of the findings was that college-age marijuana use increased by 18% and was 48% higher than the national average — ranked sixth in the nation at the time of the report.
These issues are concerning to me. It is generally accepted that the human brain does not reach full maturity until the mid-20s. Medical science does not yet fully understand brain development through early adulthood, nor do doctors agree on what effect marijuana use can have on the brain during these first two-and-a-half decades of life. I believe risking the potential of our youngest generation just to legalize another intoxicant is reckless public policy.
I have repeatedly heard proponents of the legislation claim that enacting the statute in Delaware would spell the end of illegal sales in our state, as safe, regulated products would replace sketchy street transactions.
In reality, the states that have adopted recreational marijuana have found this not to be the case.
In an article published last June, David W. Murray, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, wrote: “Advocates for legalization were adamant that a major purpose was to create a regulated market that would drive out the criminal element and end the violence that drives the black market. In fact, the exact opposite has happened, with a thriving black market still dominating the trade, as has happened everywhere states have legalized marijuana, from California to Illinois.”
According to “Legalization of Marijuana in Colorado: The Impact,” a 2020 law enforcement intelligence report from the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA), seizures of marijuana in Colorado increased 17%, from an average of 242 parcels (2009-12) — before legalization — to an average of 283 parcels during the time recreational marijuana has been commercialized (2013-19).
Traffic accidents
The same HIDTA report also cited another major concern I have with legalization — the potential for increased deaths and injuries from traffic accidents. Since Colorado legalized recreational marijuana in 2013, traffic deaths in which drivers tested positive for marijuana increased by 135%, while all Colorado traffic deaths increased by 24%.
It should be noted that, while Colorado may have enacted legalization, the state’s residents have not embraced it. In fact, about two-thirds of local governments in the state have banned both medical and recreational marijuana businesses from their jurisdictions.
Many Delaware legalization proponents have lauded the revenue it would generate, but in Colorado, the marijuana money flowing into that state’s coffers amounts to only about 1% of that state’s annual budget. Translating that to Delaware would mean about $50 million annually. When weighing that relatively modest gain against the potential for harming our youths, fostering crime and increasing traffic deaths, legalization seems like a poor bargain for Delawareans.
Rewarding criminal action
Finally, I take issue with one of the more controversial aspects of House Bill 372. The legislation sets aside a significant number of licenses to operate a marijuana retail store, testing facility, cultivation facility or product-manufacturing facility as “social equity licenses.” Among the qualifications to obtain a social equity license is having been previously “convicted of or adjudicated delinquent for any marijuana-related offense except for delivery to a minor.”
While I believe all convicted criminals deserve a second chance after they have served their debt to society, I have difficulty supporting any state law that lauds criminal action to the extent that it becomes a prerequisite to secure a license to enter the legal drug trade.
For all these reasons, I oppose making marijuana legal in the First State.
Rep. Charles Postles is a Milford Republican.
