every forty two seconds someone is arrested for can well it's an honor to have you here and we were so grateful for all the work that you're doing in delaware and and actually in the whole region i mean you're you're not only in delaware but you're also you've been coming to trenton you've been coming to trenton  of delaware normal the dollar normal chapter to be the legislative focus in delaware we don't have voter initiative so it's imperative that if we want to change the wall that we talk to the elected officials being that delaware did not have any first in the country to pass through the legislative process legalization of marijuana that's that's great that's great so he and so i was down the last time i was in delaware was a very public beach you had a and event there that was part of the in there at your rally there was the fact that you encourage people to call their legislators yes right there at the rally so tell me about that yes so we do call the actions that the candidates period delaware 's like i said through the fact that we don't have voter initiative here in delaware the only way to change the law in delaware is to contact elected officials to contact their legislators so that's a big aspect that we focus on we have postcards to legislators as well as calls to action through our facebook and social media pages as well as any of our events we encourage anybody to please call their legislator we also do street scenes where we go out and we have like a binder that says ask me about cannabis reform and you get a lot of interest involved that way and people come up to us and then people that are interested to be trying to get them to make phone calls and to the legislators belief phone calls is the best way to jersey normal so we became ill and i met in a new jersey normal meeting and that's where we found that the coalition for medical marijuana new jersey back in two thousand and two so you know it's funny how that works  then like i said about ten months into that we realize that you know we were being lobbied against it legislative hall opposed regularly so we needed you know a strong voiced regular voice in legislative  hall now you know of course new jersey and new jersey and delaware are to the states that you not have initiative and referendum so all legislation has to go through the legislature in both those states now there are advantages and disadvantages to that one of the advantages is that you can do it on a shoestring you know we oregon station ever had very much money we sell t shirts to support ourselves and dispense and i suppose that's pretty much the same with your organization you you work on a shoestring and yet you can continue your process of educating the public and and and urging them to change the legislative process through the legislators absolutely yes we actually don't  sell anything right now to finance us in fact it's exclusively team finance so we have a great that kid team members that dedicate their time and money into making this happen and fortunately  it doesn't cost a lot to show up at legislative hall and write good meeting with your representative or your senator make the phone calls and hit the streets and try to get other people to do that so we are on a very small small budget  considering that the state won't let us incorporate them and it's kind of like a david and goliath story too you know when you look at the organizations like yours and mine going up against decades of government misinformation misinformation that is  very you know highly funded by corporations that profit from marijuana being illegal it's it's it's a daunting task and it's surprising and very very noteworthy i think the successes that thousand and eleven bill and it would significantly help the patients in delaware right now if that had remained in the law and that's kind of one of the things that we're looking to do with the full legalization bill is have home cultivation so the patients that are above average street price in delaware as well as the fact that they're using street tactics to sell their candidates in terms of you can buy an ounce if they have it  packaged in an ounce form but once that prepackaged out supply runs out patients are forced to buy ace or even grand at both price which is more than the ounce that they would have bought at the prepackage level so they have to their outfit i'm sorry their eighth and their quarters are priced higher than you know if you were to buy four quarters it would be more than one ounce not sure now that's funny i mean i see here on the  also their patients are restricted to a three ounce women every two weeks so it's pretty restrictive and you know we've heard that the quality of oils and edible i'm sorry but the quality of oils and other products coming out of that dispensary aren't quite up to best standard practices for medical cannabis yet it seems to be working a little better than new jersey's program i understand it looks here like you have seventeen hundred patients registered in delaware for that one dispensary now we have about six thousand patients registered a vailable in new jersey but we have nine times the population delaware and new jersey advent nine million you have about one million a day in delaware so proportionately we're getting a little better access in in delaware than we are in jersey with the medical know that that's not in a valid reason you know with the federal areas and concerns as well as you know the funding bills that had completely funded the d n a from interfering in the medical cannabis state so it's completely unfounded that means that this program would still be blocked so basically patients unfortunately this dispensary isn't centrally located in delaware and dollars a small state but it's still run large you know one way down the state could be eighty to one hundred miles so patients that are located in the sussex and kent county are having to drive seriously far to obtain their nontoxic medicine when they're when medicine that's highly addictive and very harmful is right around the corner room as well as the fact that the medical program only qualifies debilitating illnesses so you're talking about people that are seriously sick having to drive very far in a vehicle for you know we work with this one patient that has to drive eighty miles one way so it's one hundred sixty miles every time he's got a dispensary plus there's the restrictions  on how much he's allowed to purchase as well as the fact that often when patients gets the dispensary they're sold out of the the better quality cannabis or the strength that they need or they are subjected to having to buy eight  t an inflated price so we have a lot of problems in delaware about the medical cannabis program there's actually a wall suit to urge the state to fully implement the two thousand and eleven wall as written and that also it is in fear of being dismissed this friday so there's actually a court action op to return first at sussex superior court in delaware at eleven m and we're asking all patients to please show up courtroom solidarity for the medical cannabis program to get these other two dispensaries open the program did issue an r f p for these other dispensaries but they're still dragging their feet with it we were just at the oversight committee last week where they stated that the sussex location would not even be open till some time next year around this time so considering that the law made it mandated each county by twenty thirteen and we're looking at twenty seventeen for these other dispensary see even open it's appalling you know really does some terrible at the compassion center is in wilmington yes you know it's at the arrests it definitely doesn't you know removed illicit market as well as many other problems associated with canvas prohibition but it is that it's a good first step that it only covers one ounce of a flower cannabis and it doesn't include edibles or hash or any oil so those are still subject to misdemeanor arrest as well as the fact that smoking in public is still a misdemeanor arrest and being arrested for this i actually had a friend of mine whose house was raided for some seeds and stem which doesn't make a lot of sense as well as the fact that people in vehicles are being arrested not for smoking but just carrying the product in their car the police have found a nice little haiti loophole around decriminalization law and are still arresting people for transporting candidate and not a dui but just transporting cannabis in their vehicle and a lot of the people that we talk to that are subject to this arrest are african american and that were african american to three times more likely to be arrested despite similar usage of most races and we're still seeing that with decriminalization basically the only fact that nobody should be going to jail for a plant or face any prosecution whatsoever gutless you know so and so what are the prospects for this how are you doing with the legalization proposal in delaware so we are doing fairly well we just gained bipartisan support in the senate we have senator bonine republican gubernatorial candidate in full favor is this as well as at the oversight committee last week senator margaret rose henry has come out in full support of this saying that she will introduce a bill in january and she's been one of our biggest contributors to all can legislation where she is one of our champion to really appreciate all the help she's been doing to give people safe access so we're looking forward to being the first state in the entire country to pass through the legislative process so and  they opposed a number of different things in the bill and our sponsor representative keeley kind of made some concessions with some of those things and we really lost out on  the actions of our states really have a tremendous ripple effect in the entire region for example when our when our bill the compassionate use medical marijuana act passed in two thousand and nine just in the senate that's when there was an explosion of interest in the department of health to produce reports that they should have reported they should have produced anyway but for the most part the courts courts have been a tough tough way to go they tend to give a tremendous amount of deference to the executive to parents aged executive branch agencies that that develop these programs for example your health department developed the medicinal marijuana program so the courts tend to defer to these experts agencies themselves yes actually process and hopefully it won't be dismissed on friday and certainly wish you a lot of luck with that and with your plans for legalization of marijuana in delaware that would that would really be a donovan who's an attorney and over competitors who's a veteran speaking on that panel we're very excited about that that's next tuesday as well as our next town hall is scheduled for november sevent then we're going to have lobby day in january and hopefully get this bill introduced in january and have some good legislation and it's great it's certainly it's you certainly have a great deal of activities planned for  certainly you know it helps patients in a great many ways it takes it from really a prescription drug to an over the counter drug if you allow for anyone twenty one and over just like buying a bottle of tylenol and actually say for than buying a bottle of tylenol  t but you also on do the harms that are associated with the current policy a prohibition you mentioned before the the racial disparity in arrests you know we see that same racial disparity in new jersey where blacks are three times more likely to be arrested than whites and and just the the tremendous civil penalties acoa long with the criminal penalties that as neil franklin once said you can get over an addiction but you never you know when we get this message out to the public you know i think that that the public will be receptive to it so we thank you so much for your efforts in delaware and any reference regionally it's it's you're doing great work thank you for all you're doing go for more information about the coalition for medical marijuana new jersey join us and our free public meetings on the second tuesday of every month at the lawrence township library in mercer county new jersey from seven to nine p arrested for marijuana every forty two seconds someone is arrested for marijuana or maybe that was the easiest i need more we ever did almost all that was great she came right out and said i know all about it that's the kind of people we like love cops like i love cops like she said she says yeah yeah you know what i'd screw around with some big guys but i don't know if i screw around her for her to be where she is she's got to be tougher than a guy yeah yes