Legislation that would legalize possession of small quantities of marijuana for personal use returned to a House committee Tuesday.
Democrats previously released State Rep. Ed Osienski’s (D-Newark) bill from the Health and Human Development committee last month.
But Republicans objected because there was no public comment, with most GOP representatives walking out of the April 13th meeting.
The committee heard public comment Tuesday, primarily from civil liberties advocates supporting the bill. The League of Local Governments and the Medical Society of Delaware spoke in opposition.
The meeting was sparsely attended by lawmakers themselves, which State Rep. Bryan Shupe (R-Milford) noted when explaining why the bill returned to committee.
“We’re going to make this right," he said. "We’re going to have another public hearing, we’re going to listen to not only the committee members, but everyone else. It’s a commitment to say ‘we’re going to listen to the rules.' To have so many people not on the committee is a little disappointing.”
Because of low attendance, the committee could not vote to release the bill; instead, the committee walked the bill.
By late Tuesday afternoon, the bill received enough support to be released to the House floor where it needs a simple majority to pass.
A related bill to establish a regulatory structure for legalized marijuana passed out of committee last month. That would need a three-fifths majority to pass.
