This week, host Olivia Marble talks with reporter Julia Merola, who took a break from her day-to-day beat of public education to cover the first anniversary of Delaware’s recreational marijuana market.
Merola, along with intern, Ella Walker, recently spoke to officials, business owners and licensees across the state to find out how the first year has gone. The industry has faced significant hurdles, which has resulted in no new standalone recreational marijuana shops in Delaware, even after regulators awarded dozens of licenses.
Marble and Merola discuss the reasons behind the delay, how it has impacted state revenues from marijuana sales and what it’s like to report on a subject that you aren’t initially familiar with.
This conversation transcript has been edited for clarity and concision with the assistance of AI. The audio podcast is unedited.
Let’s begin where your article begins, with the story of Louise Shelton. She received a license to grow marijuana in Delaware but hasn’t been able to use it. What’s her story, and why did you choose to feature her?
Whenever we do a story, we try to show how an issue affects everyday people, and Louise was one of the first people I spoke with.
She thought she was being approached by investors who wanted to help her secure a site and open her cultivation business. But she later learned that they weren’t actually investors. They were consultants who weren’t bringing any money to the table.
So she’s still at a standstill because she doesn’t have the funding to get started on her own. Without the money to purchase a site, she can’t begin cultivating.
And she was a social equity cultivator, right? What does that mean, and why did the state create the social equity program?
She received a social equity cultivation license.
A social equity applicant can be someone who has lived for at least five of the past 15 years in an area with high rates of arrests, convictions and incarceration for marijuana-related offenses.
It can also be someone who was convicted of certain marijuana-related offenses in Delaware, or whose parent, guardian, child or dependent was convicted of one of those offenses before marijuana was legalized in April 2023.
Why did the state feel it needed to create that program?
This was before my time covering the issue, but I think it goes back to the idea of trying to make things right.
We know there have been a lot of incarcerations related to marijuana offenses, and our understanding of marijuana has changed compared with 20 years ago.
I think the program is the government’s way of trying to make amends for some of those past incarcerations and convictions.
You found that the delays Louise Shelton has experienced aren’t unusual. What’s happening with standalone recreational marijuana shops? Why haven’t any opened yet?
There are a few reasons.
Over the past two years, there’s been a lot of discussion about where these businesses should be allowed to open. Much of that debate has centered on buffer zones and how far marijuana businesses should be from places such as schools and churches.
When I spoke with Marijuana Commissioner Joshua Sanderlin, he described a situation where someone could receive a license and then struggle to find a location where they’re actually allowed to open.
Even if you have the money, the buffer requirements can make it difficult to find a suitable property. Having a license doesn’t do you much good if you can’t find a place to operate.
The state legislature recently passed a controversial bill loosening regulations on where marijuana businesses can locate in Delaware. But it had a rocky path to passage. What happened, and why was it so contentious?
There was a lot of back and forth between state legislators and the governor.
Lawmakers initially passed Senate Bill 75, which loosened zoning regulations for the state’s marijuana industry. Governor Matt Meyer vetoed the bill, but at the beginning of 2026, legislators came back and overrode his veto.
That created a lot of unhappiness among local officials, who felt the state was taking away some of their control over where marijuana businesses could operate.
There have been strong feelings about this at every level of government, from county and municipal officials to state legislators and the governor’s office.
There’s been a lot of discussion about taking away local control, right?
Yeah, especially in your field.
Absolutely. The argument was essentially that by forcing counties and towns to remove some of their buffer requirements, the state was taking away local control.
Exactly. If I’m a county council member or a town council member, I might want the ability to say, “This shop can open here, but it can’t open there.”
One way local governments make those decisions is through buffer requirements. Senate Bill 75 loosened those requirements significantly.
So the concern becomes: How am I supposed to make these decisions for my town if the state is imposing requirements on what I can and can’t do as a local official?
Why did the state decide to do that? If lawmakers knew they were wading into the contentious issue of local control, why did they think it was necessary?
I don’t want to say whether it was worth it or not. I’m a journalist.
But we heard from people who said loosening these restrictions would allow some license holders to finally find locations where they can open their businesses.
Marijuana Commissioner Joshua Sanderlin told me there’s a new shop expected to open in Georgetown at the end of this summer. That’s something that likely wouldn’t have been possible under the previous buffer requirements.
So the legislature’s position was essentially that some of the local requirements were too restrictive and weren’t allowing this emerging industry to get established.
Exactly.
Even though no new standalone recreational marijuana shops have opened yet, Delawareans can still legally buy recreational marijuana at some existing stores, right? I’m asking for a friend, by the way.
Yes. There were stores that previously sold marijuana exclusively for medical use, and some of those have since converted to recreational sales.
There are currently 13 locations throughout the state where your friend could make a purchase.
Good to know. One of the reasons I’ve heard for Delaware—and other states—legalizing recreational marijuana was the potential tax revenue.
How are sales in this new industry? Are the numbers as high as the state expected?
The state saw $53 million in sales during the first year, from Aug. 1, 2025, through July 31, 2026.
Before recreational sales began, the former marijuana commissioner had projected that Delaware could see roughly $280 million in sales.
Obviously, $53 million is nowhere near $280 million.
When I spoke with the current commissioner, he told me those earlier projections may have been more appropriate for a mature, established marijuana market.
If Delaware already had a robust industry, perhaps we could have seen numbers closer to $280 million. But we’re still in the beginning stages, which helps explain why the actual number was much lower.
Still, $53 million is only about a fifth of the sales that had been projected, right?
I’m not good at math, but it’s definitely not $280 million.
I think it’s important to note that the Marijuana Commissioner told me the first year was focused heavily on establishing more growers, or cultivators.
As he explained it, if the state opened more stores without first establishing enough growers, prices could spike.
So the state was trying to establish the supply side of the market while, at the same time, there were ongoing debates about where marijuana businesses could and couldn’t operate.
All of those factors affected the first year of sales.
If you don’t have many stores throughout the state, you can end up with areas where people simply don’t have convenient access. Most people aren’t going to drive an hour to make a purchase.
I personally wouldn’t. Gas is expensive.
It really is.
I believe this is your first article about marijuana. What surprised you during the reporting process?
I wouldn’t say this necessarily surprised me, but it reminded me how confusing it can be to jump onto a beat you haven’t covered before.
When it comes to education, I consider myself pretty well-versed. I’m always learning new things, but for the most part, I know what I’m doing and what questions I need to ask.
This story was different. Marijuana is a highly regulated industry, and learning all of that context while reporting the story was challenging.
When you’re used to covering your own beat, you can forget how difficult it is to enter a completely new subject. You have to figure out which questions to ask, what context readers need and how all the pieces fit together.
This was not an easy story.
Absolutely. Especially at Spotlight Delaware, where we try to give readers as much context as possible. It’s tough to jump into a completely new subject and immediately feel confident that you understand everything you need to explain.
But I think you did a good job.
Thank you.
