So where is the Marijuana Bill?
It’s coming. Sources tell me that the bill will be introduced once it is close to having the required 3/5th majority of the House planning to vote for it. The previous and future prime sponsor of the legalization bill, State Representative Ed Osienski, says that he thinks it will be introduced when the General Assembly returns from its JFC break on March 9.
Why does a marijuana legalization bill need to have a 3/5ths majority to pass? Because the bill will create a new tax on marijuana, and under the Delaware Constitution, any bill that creates a new tax requires a 3/5th majority vote for passage. That means it needs 25 Representatives voting in favor.
Now there are 26 Democrats in the House, but as we have painfully learned the last time we voted on full legalization, in 2018, some Democrats did not vote on the bill at all.
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The 2018 bill was defeated in a 21-15 vote, four votes short of the 25 votes needed. As you can see above, five Democrats, including the Speaker, did not vote, thus guaranteeing the bill’s defeat in a cowardly maneuver. The bill did get the vote of a single Republican, Jeff Spiegelman.
Read more: https://bluedelaware.com/2021/02/15/so-where-is-the-marijuana-bill/
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