A man sat in his car at Sixth and Market streets in downtown Wilmington last week, casually puffing on a joint while the smell of marijuana wafted from his open driver’s side window.

The guy was breaking the law even though Delaware law now lets adults age 21 or older possess, use, transport, and share personal quantities of recreational weed without any criminal or civil penalty.

No cops were around to confront the man blatantly getting high in his car, however, and he eventually drove off without incident.

But now that weed has been legal in Delaware since April 23, here’s an extensive but non-exhaustive tutorial on what is and what is not allowed, and how you can partake without fear of running afoul of the new law
A companion bill that created a regulatory structure and 125 licenses for growing, product manufacturing, testing, and retail sales took effect Thursday, but no licenses will be granted for more than a year.

To see the legal language for yourself, you can read the text of the legalization-only bill, and the regulatory one on the General Assembly’s website.

The bills passed overwhelmingly in both the House and Senate, culminating a nearly decade-long crusade by legalization advocates.

Gov. John Carney, an ardent foe who had successfully vetoed the legalization bill last year, killing the effort, decided last week to let both become law without his signature.

Where can I get weed?
This will remain a dicey transaction until your neighborhood Marijuana Mart opens, which likely won’t happen until late in 2024.

Until then, users will have to buy marijuana the same way they always have – from someone who is breaking the law if they are selling it. Giving weed as a gift is now legal.

And while stores in New Jersey also will sell it to visitors from Delaware, it remains illegal to transport weed across state lines.

Growing for personal use remains illegal in Delaware too.

So while the legalization-only law says people are permitted to “purchase” weed, Mat Marshall, spokesman for Attorney General Kathy Jennings, agrees that the lag time between legalization and retail sales is problematic.

“You’re absolutely right,” Marshall said. “There’s a donut hole in the laws that exists today.”

How much weed can I have?
You can possess and even transport what the law defines as a “personal-use quantity” of what legalization advocates prefer to call cannabis.

So what does that mean, exactly?

The law allows you to have a maximum of one of the following:

One ounce (28.35 grams) of leaf.
12 grams or less of hash or other forms of concentrate.
Up to 750 milligrams of pot edibles such as gummies.
The key word in the law is “or.” In other words, you can have an ounce of weed, or the gummies, or hash, but not a combination.

Nor does the new Delaware specify how much of each type – leaf, hash, and gummies — that someone can possess if they purchase a combo of the three.
Where can I get high?
This is an easy one, if you want to avoid any chance of police intervention.

Do it at home or someone else’s place. Perhaps on the porch or in the yard, as long as you are at least 10 feet from the sidewalk or property line. And stay there until the buzz wears off.

The law itself doesn’t use the word home but makes clear where you cannot smoke or ingest. And that’s in “an area accessible to the public or in a moving vehicle.”

So, no catching a buzz in the car.

But what is “an area accessible to the public?”

That’s a pretty lengthy list.

Outdoors, it means within 10 feet of a “sidewalk, street, alley, parking lot, park, playground, store, restaurant, or any other area to which the general public is invited.”

But there are more spots prohibited outside. That’s within 10 feet of “entrances, exits, windows that open, or ventilation intakes of any public or private building.”