The federal agency’s standard collides with Delaware Code, forcing the state’s cannabis regulators to work with lawmakers to draft new legislation.
Cannabis Business Times
Delaware’s plan to commence adult-use cannabis sales this spring has been upended.
State cannabis regulators with the Office of the Marijuana Commissioner (OMC) announced March 31 that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) rejected their revised application for a service code to initiate Delaware’s statutorily required criminal background checks via a fingerprinting system for the forthcoming adult-use market.
The service code from the FBI would authorize Delaware officials to fingerprint individuals and run criminal history reports.
The OCM had been working with the State Bureau of Identification (SBI) and the Delaware Department of Justice to secure the FBI service code, but a conflict between the federal agency and the state means that Delaware’s cannabis regulators must return to state lawmakers to develop new legislation aligning with the FBI’s standards.
“After review of the authorizing statute, the FBI advised that Title 4 of the Delaware Code must contain language explicitly identifying the categories of persons required to obtain a background check,” the OCM announced Monday. “This specificity is necessary to avoid overbreadth. 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 Delaware General Assembly is scheduled to be in session until June 30, 2025.
