A “study commission” sounds fair and even-handed. After all, who can be against studying something before making a decision?

But do not be fooled. The “study commission” promoted by opponents of legalizing and regulating marijuana is not as neutral as it sounds. The intent is to delay a vote on legalization for as long as possible.

This is the seventh year that legislation to legalize marijuana has been introduced in the General Assembly. It has been discussed year after year in committee hearings, public forums and televised debates. Three out of five Rhode Islanders now want us to end our senseless policy of prohibition. It is time for the General Assembly to vote.

Not all of us agree. But we live in a democracy. At the very least, voters deserve to know where their legislators stand.

To be clear, there is an important difference between studying “if” we should legalize versus “how.” We should carefully study the “how” question, since that is a crucial component to successfully implementing the law. But the “study commission” proposed by opponents of legalization will not study the “how” question. It will only bog us down in the same debate we have had for seven years.

The choice we must make is straightforward: prohibition or regulation. Approving this “study commission” is a decision to continue prohibition. We already have an overwhelming amount of data and evidence that shows regulation is the smarter, more responsible public policy.

In states with legal marijuana, thousands of people who would otherwise have become entangled in the criminal justice system are no longer being arrested. Tightly regulated businesses have replaced illegal drug dealers and are paying hundreds of millions in taxes. Multiple federal and state surveys show that teen marijuana use has not increased and may be trending downward.

Most concerns stem from the assumption that more people will use marijuana if it is legalized. “More people will drive under the influence. More people will fail a drug test for a job. More people will become addicted.”

There is little evidence to support this assumption. As one might imagine, Colorado has intensively studied the results of its marijuana law. In a 300-page report published this year, their Department of Health wrote, “For adults and adolescents, past-month marijuana use has not changed since legalization either in terms of the number of people using or the frequency of use among users.”

That explains why Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado — initially a critic of legalization — recently told reporters, “We were wrong to worry about a dramatic spike in overall usage and teenage usage. Basically, the people who were smoking marijuana before it was legal still are. The people who weren’t smoking marijuana before it was legal still aren’t.”

Similarly, Governors Jay Inslee of Washington and Kate Brown of Oregon — whose states legalized marijuana in 2012 and 2014 respectively — are publicly defending their policies and touting their successes. Governor Inslee recently wrote in a letter to the federal government, “Our state's efforts to regulate the sale of marijuana are succeeding. A few years ago, the illegal trafficking of marijuana lined the pockets of criminals everywhere. Now, in our state, illegal trafficking activity is being displaced by a closely regulated marijuana industry that pays hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes.”

To those who call for a “study commission,” we ask, what are you waiting for? The data and evidence are already available to study. We have had decades to see that prohibition is a failed policy that does not reduce the availability or use of marijuana. How many more millions of dollars will we waste trying to arrest our way out of the problem? How much longer will we ignore the majority of our constituents who want reform?

When 60 percent of voters support an idea, it's reasonable to expect elected officials to at least vote on it.

So we repeat: it is time for a vote.

Josh Miller is a Democratic state senator from Cranston. Scott Slater is a Democratic state representative from Providence. They are primary sponsors of legislation to legalize marijuana.