Comments sought on proposed marijuana regulations
It’s been about 10 months since marijuana was legalized in Delaware for adults 21 and over. In advance of retail and production operations going online, the state is in the process of creating rules and regulations for the new program.
With that in mind, over the past few weeks, the Office of the Marijuana Commissioner has released several draft regulations for review and comment. The first set of draft regulations, sections 3-5, released Feb. 15, is related to the licensing of adult-use recreational marijuana businesses, the application process, the issuance of licenses, and the processes regarding the renewal and transfer of licenses. The second set, sections 7-10, released Feb. 29, is related to tracking, product health standards, packaging and labeling requirements, and advertising.
Most of the messages on the licensing are questions about how things work, said OMC Deputy Paul Hyland in an email March 1. After posting the first three sections, OMC identified some areas that need modification, and those will be amended, he said.
The code sections issued to date represent a little more than one-third of all sections. Hyland laid out the remaining sections: section 1 is definitions; section 2 is general considerations; section 6 is general compliance; section 11 is testing and sampling; section 12 is about waste disposal; sections 13 and 14 are reserved for tax; section 15 is about enforcement; section 16 is the appeals process; section 17 is a fee schedule; section 18 is about severability; and section 19 is about variances.
With the state’s medical marijuana program well underway, the state isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel. Hyland said the safety standards built by the medical marijuana program will remain. Delaware has not recalled any marijuana products; this is a result of inspection and testing protocols, he said, adding Delaware’s testing standards are the toughest in the country when it comes to molds, yeast and bacterial contamination.
Other sections of adult-use regulations that share common elements with medical marijuana regulations include physical security standards, seed-to-sale tracking, transportation, sample testing and other health standards, said Hyland.
The informal comment period on the OMC website – omc.delaware.gov – will close Friday, March 29. Following that, revisions will be made. Then the OMC will begin the formal rule-making process, which involves the publication of official proposed regulations in the Register of Regulations. The OMC will announce the timing of this formal public comment period and provide key dates on the website as details become available. The target date for the formal public comment period in the Register of Regulations is May 1 through May 31.
The OMC’s website also lays out its implementation plan beyond this process: July – adoption of regulations to administer licensing of recreational marijuana businesses; Sept. 1 – accepting all license applications begins; Nov. 1 – issuing up to 60 cultivation facility licenses; Dec. 1 – issuing up to 30 product manufacturing licenses; March 1, 2025 – issuing up to 30 retail and five testing facility licenses.
