Delaware should join marijuana petition

Marijuana will be to the 21st century what alcohol was to the 20th century.

Alcohol was a relatively benign substance that was made illegal, fostering a violent black market and needlessly creating thousands of criminals and a prison system to house them. Then alcohol was legalized.

The black market was eliminated, and along with it the extensive enforcement required by alcohol laws. In turn, taxes on alcohol products created a positive revenue flow to help fund government programs and a burgeoning industry – think distillers, wineries and brewers – that created honest jobs for hundreds of thousands of people. With the legalization also came sensible age limits and restrictions.

Our society is marching slowly but surely toward a similar evolution with marijuana.  A nation of people whose No. 1 core value is freedom wants more education, less regulation. With more education, such as helping people understand the downsides of marijuana use – as with alcohol use - people can make more knowledgeable, responsible choices. But that’s down the line a ways.

In the meantime, Delaware’s General Assembly last year further marked Delaware’s progressive state status by legalizing marijuana use for medical reasons.  Still, there’s a dilemma. Federal law classifies marijuana, like cocaine and heroin, as a drug with potential for abuse, but without medicinal value. Possession, for any reason, is illegal.

As such, the compassion centers Delaware has authorized for cultivation and distribution of medical marijuana, and the certified patients who receive it, are in jeopardy of federal arrest.

There is a simple fix. If the federal Department of Justice would reclassify marijuana to recognize its medicinal value, possession for nonmedical reasons would still be illegal – just as is the case with oxycodone, morphine and dozens of other drugs – but marijuana for medical reasons would be legal.

The governors of Washington and Rhode Island have petitioned to effect that reclassification. Gov. Jack Markell should give strong consideration to joining that petition, thus giving the initiative more weight. By signing the law legalizing medical marijuana, he has already recognized its medical uses.

It’s time to help resolve the state/federal conflict by urging the Department of Justice to also recognize marijuana’s medicinal value by reclassifying it.