The governor of Delaware is slamming the FBI for “stifling state-led innovation” by rejecting a request to create a fingerprint background check system for would-be cannabis industry workers, which threatens to delay the rollout of the state’s adult-use marijuana market.
During a State of the State address on Thursday, Gov. Matt Meyer (D) joked that, while he didn’t bring any cannabis “samples” to the event, he wanted to “talk about the green elephant in the room.” That is, the “delayed opening of Delaware’s recreational marijuana market.”
“This industry has the potential to produce tens of millions of dollars in annual tax revenue—money meant to be invested directly into our schools, our libraries and communities; money that could be used to cover federal funding shortfalls and address historic inequities created by a drug war,” he said. “Instead, the FBI’s insistence that Delaware’s original recreational marijuana law is insufficient is just another egregious example of federal bureaucracy stifling state-led innovation.”
While state regulators have been planning to license the first recreational cannabis businesses this month, the enacted statute requires the background checks to be in place first. Without a legislative fix, the market launch will likely be delayed.
The governor thanked Rep. Ed Osienski (D)—who championed the enacted legalization law—for “quickly” introducing a measure to resolve the background check issue that cleared its first House committee this week.
“We will continue to push the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice to act appropriately so we can get what Delawareans clearly want,” Meyer said, adding that he will be naming a new commissioner to oversee the cannabis market “within days.”
“We’ll cut through federal bureaucracy, and we will work with urgency to meet the promise that you all made to have legalized recreational marijuana in the state of Delaware,” he said.
The Office of the Marijuana Commissioner (OMC), which is responsible for regulating the market, said recently that it had worked with the State Bureau of Identification and the Delaware Department of Justice to obtain the required FBI service code before receiving a denial late last month.
Under Osienski’s new bill, HB 110, the state’s current marijuana law would be amended to identify categories of people who’d need to complete fingerprint-based background checks within the cannabis industry. The hope is that will bring statute into compliance, after which point another request for the service code would be submitted to FBI.
Marijuana remains illegal at the federal level, but FBI has previously granted a fingerprinting background system for Delaware’s medical cannabis program.
Late last year, OMC held a series of licensing lotteries for cannabis business to start serving adult consumers.
A total of 125 licenses will ultimately be issued, including 30 retailers, 60 cultivators, 30 manufacturers and five testing labs. Last year, regulators also detailed what portion of each category is reserved for social equity applicants, microbusinesses and general open licenses.
Regulators have also been rolling out a series of proposed regulations to stand up the forthcoming adult-use cannabis industry.
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Meanwhile, former Gov. John Carney (D) raised eyebrows in January after making a questionable claim that “nobody” wants cannabis shops in their neighborhoods, even if there’s consensus that criminalization doesn’t work.
The then-governor last year signed several additional marijuana bills into law, including measures that would allow existing medical cannabis businesses in the state to begin recreational sales on an expedited basis, transfer regulatory authority for the medical program and make technical changes to marijuana statutes.
The dual licensing legislation is meant to allow recreational sales to begin months earlier than planned, though critics say the legislation would give an unfair market advantage to larger, more dominant businesses already operating in multiple states.
In October, Carney also gave final approval to legislation to enact state-level protections for banks that provide services to licensed marijuana businesses.
Delaware’s medical marijuana program is also being significantly expanded under a law that officially took effect last July.
The policy change removes limitations for patient eligibility based on a specific set of qualifying health conditions. Instead, doctors will be able to issue cannabis recommendations for any condition they see fit.
The new law also allows patients over the age of 65 to self-certify for medical cannabis access without the need for a doctor’s recommendation.
Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.
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