Delaware’s Marijuana Commissioner Rob Coupe is stepping down months prior to the expected launch of the recreational marijuana market.
Coupe was tapped by former Gov. John Carney to lead the inaugural Office of the Marijuana Commissioner in June 2023 after recreational marijuana was legalized without the governor’s signature less than two months prior.
Coupe has spent the last year and a half building the office from the ground up and is stepping down just weeks after the state distributed 15 marijuana retail licenses via a lottery process with over 500 hopeful applicants.
He’s been giving informational presentations up and down the state over the past several months as municipalities have been navigating how to regulate marijuana business within town limits.
The majority of municipalities in Sussex County have banned recreational marijuana dispensaries entirely, while the county as a whole has placed the state’s most restrictive zoning ordinances on dispensary locations — 3 miles from sensitive locations such as schools, churches and drug rehabilitation facilities.
These types of restrictions are no longer unique to Sussex County — the state still awaits a major decision from the City of Wilmington, which is considering a total dispensary ban.
In his parting public words, Coupe cautions that these types of restrictions only fuel Delaware’s illegal market.
“The other point we make is about access equity, especially in cities that we identified as being disproportionately impacted by the marijuana laws. And now, some of those same towns and cities are saying, ‘We’re not going to let you sell it legally in our town.’ So now, they’re creating their own form of this access inequity,” Coupe explained. “So now people living in their city have to go outside that city to the suburbs to buy legal marijuana, but they’ll probably still be able to buy illegal marijuana in that town. So it’s very complicated — folks are on either side, but you know, we continue to support the folks that have got the licenses, and we’ll help them as they try to find locations.”
Coupe says state legislators have been talking about reviewing the enabling legislation to see if something can be done to temper the restrictive zoning decisions.
“It’s here, and again, my background is law enforcement. I was a trooper for 28 years, and I enforced those laws, but the laws changed, and now it’s legal. So as a state, I think we have a responsibility to regulate it and to give our citizens the opportunity to purchase it legally,” he said.
He also encourages municipalities and state leaders to consider the economic growth the new industry is bringing to Delaware, not only with the 15% tax revenue, but with job opportunities, and he hopes the stigma around recreational marijuana business begins to shift.
“Over the years, I’ve seen many dedications where an industry, a store, a business, comes in and says, ‘Hey, we’re going to add a store in this location. We’re going to have 15 employees,’ and the state gives them sometimes tax benefits, sometimes grant benefits, and folks will come out and politicians want to be there and celebrate that because they’re bringing jobs to the community,” Coupe said. “In this industry, we’re gonna be bringing hundreds of jobs to the state, to the communities, going to be bringing millions of dollars to the state, and yet, you see what happens. These folks are being told, ‘Don’t bring your business here. Don’t open here. Don’t bring that employment opportunity here.'”
While Coupe says the expected timeline of opening retail dispensaries in April of this year is still realistic, the office feels more comfortable recognizing it may also take May and June.
Coupe began his career with the Delaware State Police, where he served for 28 years, culminating in his role as Superintendent at the rank of Colonel. He also served as cabinet secretary at the Department of Safety and Homeland Security, commissioner of the Department of Correction, Chief of Staff at the Department of Technology and Information and Chief of Staff with the Delaware Department of Justice.
After 40 years of public service, Coupe has taken a job in the private sector as the new Chief of Staff at CRx Construction in Rehoboth Beach.
Delaware’s Marijuana Commissioner Rob Coupe is stepping down months prior to the expected launch of the recreational marijuana market. Read More
