Some members of the Milford City Council may be open to reconsidering the city’s recreational marijuana laws after hearing from the state’s top marijuana regulator.
City Council voted 6-2 to ban recreational marijuana sales in January 2025. Last week, state Marijuana Commissioner Josh Sanderlin paid a visit to a council workshop with the twin aims of talking about the industry and starting a dialogue with local officials.
“I'm here, really, kind of just trying to lay the groundwork for conversations, paths forward,” he said. “And if the path forward is no, then the path forward is no.”
Sanderlin contended that there have been a number of misconceptions about the industry he regulates.
“There's a lot of ambiguity in my industry and a lot of misunderstanding in my industry on all sides,” he said. “On my industry’s side towards local governments and local governments towards my industry.”
“We're dealing with 80 years of prohibition and reefer madness,” he added. “We're trying to overcome these perceptions, and that's why I feel it's important to come and talk to y'all and try to encourage dialogue between licensees and local governments, making sure that my licensees, before they come to y'all, have their ducks in a row.”
He noted that Milford, due to its ban on recreational marijuana sales, is home to the only dispensary in the state that only sells medical marijuana. In response to a question from a council member, Sanderlin said that dispensary, Fresh Cannabis, makes about ten times less than the company’s other sites that do sell recreational marijuana.
“Smoke shops” are a growing problem for regulators, municipalities, and communities
Sanderlin spoke at length about so-called “smoke shops,” unregulated stores that supposedly sell hemp products. Because they do not technically sell cannabis, they are outside the purview of Sanderlin’s agency, although they are regularly inspected for violations by officials from Delaware Alcohol and Tobacco Enforcement, or DATE.
“They're generally selling products from California, Oregon, calling them hemp, but when DATE goes in, DATE has a little lab test machine they bring in, and it's testing anywhere from 25 to 30% THC, way, way above the 0.3% that it's allowed to be by dry weight,” Sanderlin said.
He also noted that smoke shops are likely doing part of their business with minors.
“We're hearing SROs, student resource officers, tell us they watch kids go into them,” he said. “And up north, there's actually one across the street from a school. Again, no zoning impediments for these guys.”
Sanderlin noted that while regulated marijuana dispensaries have to adhere to stringent requirements about packaging their products, smoke shops seem to be actively marketing to young people.
“My packaging requirements are super strict. Child-resistant packaging, no bright colors, no cartoon characters. You can't use any product that's on the market currently, so you can't say these are Skittles, but they're with weed in them,” he explained. “You go into these places, it's the exact opposite. Everything is Skittles, Nerds, Doritos, and they're bright colors, and again, no age-gating.”
And, he said, Milford has its share of smoke shops.
“The folks over at DATE have issued about half a dozen cease and desist orders in the city of Milford that they could just ramble off the top of their head, let alone if we went back in and dug into the situation, so it's occurring all over the city.”
Council member Nadia Zychal, who opposed the January 2025 ordinance banning recreational marijuana sales, noted that the smoke shops are violating at least some city ordinances.
“Anecdotally, they don't even adhere to our own particular zoning regulations,” she said. “They have the blinking lights … It begs the question, what other things that they violate? But brings to mind the possibility of considering the laws of unintended consequences when decisions come before council.”
Council member D. Madula Kalesis, who supported the ban on recreational marijuana last year, is the parent of a middle schooler.
“It's in our schools,” she said. “So I know when we previously had this discussion and voted, a big concern that parents had was their children getting it, smelling it on the streets, et cetera. So I'm just saying this as a point that we haven't stopped that. It's still happening, except they're just not getting safe products, they're getting less than safe products.”
Wilmington last month passed a moratorium on new smoke shops to give the city time to evaluate the issue.
Sanderlin stresses safety and security in regulated recreational sales
In his remarks to council members, Sanderlin stressed the rigorous rules regulated marijuana businesses have to follow.
“Those companies are providing quality products, tested products, which is probably the most important thing, which are regulated, overseeing, tracked from seed to sale, and then ensuring that there's a safe way to actually get the product.”
He noted that marijuana is tracked “from seed to sale” to make certain that all marijuana products are derived exclusively from Delaware. He also explained the significant security measures that dispensaries have to follow. Many have armed guards, often retired law enforcement officers, and ID checks are mandatory.
“There's usually a security guard there, or staff with a security guard, who takes your ID or your medical marijuana card and your ID, runs it through the system, ensures that it's actually a viable ID, and then you can go in,” Sanderlin told council members. “You can't walk in. You can't stay on the outside and see in … Again, unlike the illicit stores, but also unlike alcohol. So, for a minor to get in is exceedingly difficult, if not impossible.”
In addition, every dispensary is covered with extensive video surveillance and those feeds are connected to Sanderlin’s office, enabling them to monitor dispensaries.
He also addressed crime, one concern that arose in considering a ban on recreational marijuana sales in Milford and other municipalities, saying that since the rollout of legal recreational sales last August, crime has not been a concern.
“I think I've had two instances of crime. One was an employee pocketing a quarter or an eighth or something like that,” Sanderlin said. “And then the other one was somebody pulled up and tried to get into the green waste bin, which is inert cannabis material, so you can't even get high off of it. But other than that, we've had no issues.”
