Specifically, the state needs what the FBI calls a service code, which would authorize Delaware to fingerprint individuals
Delaware’s marijuana industry remains in limbo after the FBI once again denied the state’s request to set up a fingerprinting system for criminal background checks of people who have secured a state license to run a cannabis business.
Such a system is needed before a recreational marijuana industry can launch in Delaware, and a fix will now need the intervention of the state legislature.
The denial comes just weeks after the FBI told Spotlight Delaware that the state’s initial application for background checks didn’t qualify with federal regulations.
At that time, federal officials did not reveal why it didn’t qualify, saying only that a Delaware statute that sets up regulations for fingerprinting didn’t “qualify pursuant to federal law.” State regulators argued that the background check law for recreational marijuana used the same criteria as one for medicinal marijuana, which the FBI had previously approved.
Nevertheless, state regulators reapplied for the fingerprinting approval last month. Then, last week, they were notified that their resubmission was also rejected.
The Office of the Marijuana Commissioner, the state agency responsible for overseeing Delaware’s marijuana industry, has been in the process of conducting background checks on licensees since early this year, but officials have said that they cannot proceed with reviews of potential criminal histories without the FBI approval.
Specifically, they need what the FBI calls a service code, which would authorize Delaware to fingerprint individuals. The code would be used for applicants to schedule fingerprinting appointments, allowing the State Bureau of Identification to generate criminal history reports and conduct background investigations on business operators.
In order to obtain the code, state officials needed to submit their regulations for the background checks. In this case, those were outlined in House Bill 334, which passed last year.
Given that the bill did not meet the FBI’s demands, its sponsor, House Majority Whip Ed Osienski (D-Newark), said attorneys from the state General Assembly and the Office of the Marijuana Commissioner have already begun to draft new legislation to submit to federal officials.
“We’ve jumped right on this,” he told Spotlight Delaware..
Osienski said the goal is to have the bill passed out of committee and placed on the House agenda sometime next week.
State Sen. Trey Paradee (D-Dover), a cosponsor of the bill, said the state needs to act quickly as the future of Delaware’s cannabis industry could be uncertain given that cutbacks are happening at various federal agencies.
He also said he is “fed up and frustrated” that the state’s recreational marijuana industry has not been set up yet.
“Given the (federal) layoffs and uncertainty at the FBI, we could be waiting for years for the FBI to grant Delaware approval,” Paradee said in a text message sent to Spotlight Delaware.
Delaware’s 125 chosen cannabis business licensees have anticipated an updated timeline as to when they will be able to open their shops, but for several weeks have been left in suspense, as a result of the state’s regulatory delays.
According to a public statement released by the Office of the Marijuana Commissioner, the FBI advised that the state statute needs to have “language explicitly identifying the categories of persons required to obtain a background check.”
“The Office of the Marijuana Commissioner will work expeditiously with the General Assembly to develop proposed legislation containing criteria that is satisfactory to the FBI,” the office said in a public statement on Monday.
This article was republished from Spotlight Delaware under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. You can read the original version here.
