Your source for Delaware cannabis

As of March 2017, medical marijuana has been legalized in Delaware. Additionally, the state has decriminalized possession of limited amounts for adults 21 and up.

The Delaware Medical Marijuana Act was signed into law in May 2011, allowing residents with approved medical conditions to access marijuana for treatment. Decriminalization, which removed penalties such as a marks on one’s criminal record, jail, and fines, became law in December 2015.

Dispensaries, or compassion centers, cannot be fully banned by any city, town, or county. Despite medical marijuana having been legalized in 2011, the first compassion center location was not fully operational until the summer of 2015.

As of August 2018, three compassion centers, aka dispensaries, have opened and can legally serve cardholders.

In the coming years, lawmakers in Delaware are expected to push for adult-use legalization, similar the measure in Colorado or, more recently, Massachusetts.

Until then, only medical marijuana dispensaries may operate legally.

The final regulations supporting the Delaware medical marijuana program prohibit the use of marijuana:

• In any school bus or vehicle accessible to the public
• On the grounds of any school (except by the cardholder caregiver, as medically necessary)
• At a cardholder or caregiver’s place of employment
• At a public park
• At a youth recreation center
• In any public place

Public places can include, but are not limited to: alleys, parking lots, sidewalks, streets, parks, playgrounds, stores, restaurants, and anywhere the public is generally accepted.

Public consumption is punishable by a $100 fine and possible forfeiture of the marijuana.

All compassion center employees must be at least 21 years old, live in Delaware, and cannot have been convicted by of a misdemeanor-level drug offense in the last five years. Additionally, the individual cannot have been convicted of any felony-level offense.

The individual must apply to the compassion center, which will include fingerprinting and a background check  Each step is paid for by the applicant or the compassion center.

Unless the employer is going to lose money to state regulation and laws, employers cannot discriminate, upon hire or during the cardholder's employment, against an employee solely for being a medical marijuana cardholder. This does not, however, require an employer to allow the use of marijuana on the job, nor does it stop an employer from assessing if someone is intoxicated while at work by taking a drug test.

Delivery from a compassion facility to a cardholder does appear to be legal. During the transportation, all products must be kept in original packaging and sealed, with a description of the product and date.

Delaware allows marijuana to be purchased with cash or debit card. The continued illegal status of marijuana on the federal level keeps credit and many financial services from being legally used in dispensary locations.

Rather than by ballot initiative, medical marijuana became legal in Delaware by an act of the state congress. Signed into law May 13th, 2011, the Delaware Medical Marijuana Act was passed with over 75 percent support in the state Senate.

To license cardholders, caregivers, and dispensary locations, the law required a licensing and compliance network be established by the Delaware Division of Public Health, under the Department of Human and Social Services.

The law clarified the limitations and responsibilities for physicians, regulators, cardholders, and law enforcement and set expectations for how a cardholder may access marijuana or marijuana-infused products.

In December 2015, over four years after the medical marijuana program became law, lawmakers in the state again voted to reform laws specific to marijuana, this time removing many of the criminal penalties for possession or use of marijuana for adults 21 and older.

Cardholders and their primary caregiver are able to possess no more than six ounces at any one time. Additionally, a compassion center may sell no more than three ounces to a cardholder or caregiver every fourteen days.

Under decriminalization laws, adults 21 and older who are caught in possession of one ounce or less of marijuana are subject to a civil fine of $100. Public consumption remains a criminal offense, complete with a $200 fine and misdemeanor charges.

In Delaware, marijuana cannot be grown at home legally by any person. “Compassion centers” are the only facilities in Delaware legally able to grow marijuana for medical cardholders.

Driving While Intoxicated

Delaware does not permit the use of marijuana in any vehicle, public or private. Not only is use prohibited, being intoxicated behind the wheel of a vehicle is prohibited for everyone, including valid medical cardholders.

Any individual caught driving while under the influence of marijuana, which is not determined solely by the presence of any marijuana metabolite in the blood of an individual, may have to spend as many as two months in jail and be fined as much as $1,500 for the first offense.

Driving While in Possession of Marijuana

Delaware allows medical marijuana cardholders and their primary caregiver to possess marijuana and marijuana-infused products while in a motor vehicle, yet the cardholder is forbidden from consuming the product while in the vehicle.

Rather, the marijuana must be kept in the original container as sold in the compassion center. To be extra safe, the products should be in a secure place out of reach.