Delaware’s recreational marijuana industry was originally set to open this month but now faces an unclear timeline due to setbacks
Two state bills aimed at easing regulatory delays for Delaware’s marijuana business operators are making their way through the General Assembly.
The proposals follow setbacks that have prevented state regulators from opening the recreational marijuana market and business operators, who were awarded licenses late last year, from opening up their storefronts.
Delaware’s recreational marijuana industry was originally set to open this month but now faces an unclear timeline due to setbacks tied to errors in the Marijuana Control Act, the legislation that established the industry’s regulatory framework.
Last month, state regulators were denied their second request to the FBI to establish a fingerprinting system for criminal background checks on cannabis store operators—an essential step that’s currently blocking the state from issuing conditional business licenses to the individuals who were awarded marijuana store licenses.
The state law outlining background check requirements for marijuana business applicants needed revisions before it could gain federal approval. Those changes were introduced to the General Assembly earlier this month and passed by the House last week.
House Majority Whip Ed Osienski (D-Newark), who sponsored the bill, hopes to get the legislation passed by both chambers as soon as possible so the state can resubmit their request to the FBI.
Osienski does not foresee any issues getting the bill passed through the Senate, according to Jenevieve Worley, spokeswoman for the House Majority Caucus.
The bill will go to the Senate Executive Committee on Wednesday for review before heading to the Senate floor for a full vote.
If the bill is passed by the Senate and signed by the governor, state regulators will be able to resubmit their application to the FBI to receive a service code for a fingerprinting system for cannabis business licensees.
Once approved, the Office of the Marijuana Commissioner, the state agency responsible for overseeing Delaware’s marijuana industry, can move forward with background checks and begin issuing conditional licenses to the state’s 125 approved operators.
However, business owners will still struggle to find locations for their storefronts, as advocates note that the state’s three counties have set restrictive boundaries on where marijuana shops can open, making it almost impossible for licensees to find viable real estate.
About a third of Delaware’s towns and cities have banned marijuana shops outright from their jurisdictions. While the state’s marijuana laws allow the three counties to set their own restrictions on where stores can locate, municipalities are allowed to ban cannabis shops outright.
A second bill, sponsored by State Sen. Trey Paradee (D-Dover), seeks to address that problem by lessening the zoning restrictions put in place by the counties, with a particular focus on Sussex and New Castle counties.
Senate Bill 75 would force Delaware’s three counties to lower their buffers between retail marijuana shops and sensitive areas like child care facilities, residential treatment facilities and schools down to 500 feet. In addition, Paradee has added an amendment to the bill that would strike ‘places of worship’ from the list of locations counties are allowed to set buffers between.
Currently, Sussex County has set the widest buffer between cannabis shops and other areas like town boundaries, churches, and schools at 3 miles, while New Castle has a buffer set at 1,000 feet between shops and schools, places of worship, and government buildings.
Paradee said he takes the blame for putting language in the Marijuana Control Act that allowed the counties to decide on zoning for marijuana establishments. When he helped to create HB 2, which allows the counties to make such restrictions, he said he had seen that approach work in other states. There was also broad consensus from legislators that they did not want the shops in downtown Dover or other historic districts.
“Everybody in this room needs to understand, there are over 2,000 daycare facilities in this state. There are over 1,200 churches in this state, and so when you start drawing circles of whether it’s 3 miles or even 1,500 feet, it just wipes out a lot of these possible areas,” Paradee said during a Senate Elections and Government Affairs Committee meeting last week.
In addition to decreasing the buffers counties can impose, the bill will also ensure that medical marijuana shops, also known as compassion centers, are grandfathered in so that they may operate in the recreational industry and be granted necessary building permits in order to make alterations to their buildings for conversion.
The bill also guarantees that indoor and fully enclosed cultivation facilities can operate in areas zoned for agricultural or industrial use. In addition, it updates operating hours for cannabis establishments, requiring counties to permit minimum hours of 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and noon to 8 p.m. on Sundays.
Advocates for the industry were present during the committee meeting that took place last week to voice their support for the bill and emphasized how current state laws have disrupted their business plans.
“The state is just losing money by slowing this up without changing these ordinances. There’s no place for us to go. So I have a lovely piece of paper that I paid for, and nothing I can do with it,” testified Charles Roark, who was awarded a social equity retail license in both New Castle and Sussex counties.
The bill went to the full Senate floor yesterday where Paradee received pushback from Republican Senators on the provision to disallow churches from being a part of sensitive locations.
However, their primary concern was with the state’s attempt to override local control on zoning and land use issues, which they say will create a dangerous precedent.
“That is absolutely wrong,” Senate Minority Whip Brian Pettyjohn (R-Georgetown) said.
State Sen. Kyra Hoffner (D-Leipsic), who was in support of the bill, noted that licensees and medical marijuana operators who converted have already contributed millions to set up their business, and noted that the unregulated market for marijuana is still running rampant in the state.
The bill passed 13-8, with Democratic State Sens. Darius Brown and Russ Huxtable – who represent the Wilmington and coastal beach areas that have sought to draw hard lines on zoning – joining all Republican senators in opposition.
The bill will now go to a House committee hearing for consideration before going to the full House floor for a final vote. A date has not yet been set.
This article was republished from Spotlight Delaware under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. You can read the original version here.
