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When will adult-use cannabis sales commence in Delaware?
That’s often the biggest question tied to legalization, not just in Delaware but in any state following the enactment of legislation or a voter-approved initiative.
In Delaware, former Marijuana Commissioner Rob Coupe set a target for adult-use dispensary sales to begin in March 2025. Coupe resigned in January 2025 before he could execute that plan.
Under the state’s Marijuana Control Act, which went into effect without Gov. John Carney’s signature in April 2023, the Office of the Marijuana Commissioner (OMC) had a statutory deadline to begin issuing 30 adult-use dispensary licenses—including 15 reserved for social equity applicants—by March 1, 2025.
However, that deadline was derailed when state officials failed to obtain a service code from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that they needed (and still need) to access a fingerprinting system to carry out statutorily required criminal background checks on potential licensees.
The FBI rejected the OMC’s revised application “two weeks ago,” Delaware Rep. Ed Osienski, D-Newark, said April 8 while introducing legislation to fix the service code hiccup in the House Economic Development/Banking/Insurance and Commerce Committee. The OMC didn’t announce the FBI’s rejection—over too broad of language in the state statute—publicly until last week.
Osienski’s legislation, House Bill 110, aims to amend the Delaware Code to explicitly define who is required to obtain the background checks under the state’s cannabis law to satisfy the FBI’s standards for the service codes.
“I know this is a disappointing setback, especially for the entrepreneurs who have invested so much and the consumers who have been anxiously waiting for legal access,” Osienski told his House colleagues in committee on April 8, before they advanced the bill. “But I am optimistic that these changes will provide the necessary fix to get Delaware’s adult-use cannabis market back on track.”
OMC Acting Marijuana Commissioner Paul Hyland was at the committee hearing to field questions, including one from Rep. Bryan Shupe, who asked if the FBI’s denial had anything to do with the state’s “preferential treatment” to licensing individuals with prior cannabis-related convictions or offenses under the social equity qualifications.
Hyland said the OMC wasn’t under that impression.
Rep. Daniel Short said he ran into the same problem with the FBI regarding legislation he sponsored last session that requires federal background checks for firefighters and EMS personnel. “This is not, in my mind, specific to the marijuana business.”
Still, that leaves a lingering question for Delaware’s adult-use program rollout that Rep. Lyndon Yearick inquired about during the committee hearing.
“Assuming this hurdle gets jumped over, what’s your best estimate for the first operational retail facilities to be actually open?” Yearick asked Hyland on Tuesday.
Hyland steered clear from providing a date or any sort of timeline, but the acting marijuana commission did say the current FBI debacle “hasn’t slowed us down as of yet,” adding that the Delaware Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Enforcement is still performing state-level background checks, which cover investigations into income taxes, debt obligations, bankruptcy history and other financial-related inquiries for potential licensees.
“I would say that there are some growers that are going to be ready to go fairly quickly, but as far as the retail, we haven’t had much luck with some of the retailers with the zoning problems,” Hyland said.
When Delaware lawmakers passed the Marijuana Control Act in April 2023, the legislation provided local control to both municipalities and the state’s three counties to govern the time, place and manner in which adult-use cannabis establishments could operate. In turn, some localities have enacted zoning regulations, making it nearly impossible for cannabis dispensaries to exist.
Sussex County officials, for example, adopted rules that prohibit cannabis dispensaries from operating within 3,000 feet of schools, day care facilities, parks or government buildings, WBOC reported.
Sen. Trey Paradee, D-Dover, who’s pioneered cannabis legislation alongside Osienski in the Capitol, introduced Senate Bill 75 on March 20 as a legislative fix to the zoning issues.
In particular, the legislation aims to restrict counties from prohibiting dispensaries in commercial or industrial-use zoning areas unless the dispensary is located within 500 feet of a school, child care facility, residential treatment facility, park, library or place of worship, or a half mile of another dispensary.
Also, S.B. 75 establishes that dispensaries could operate from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Monday through Saturday and noon to 8 p.m. on Sundays. The legislation also protects the state’s 13 existing medical cannabis dispensaries from new zoning regulations upon their conversion to adult-use licensure.
However, until these legislative fixes materialize, the 125 entities that were selected for adult-use business licenses in the OMC’s lotteries held in late 2024 are stuck on the sideline. Once these 125 aspiring cannabis entrepreneurs complete their background reviews, the OMC will issue them conditional licenses, providing them 18 months to become fully operational.
That said, unless state officials choose to divert from their intentions of an equitable rollout, an adult-use sales launch won’t commence until after the FBI services codes are provided and the federal background checks are performed.
In the meantime, Hyland recommended that the lottery winners should continue with their business plans.
“I’m not in a position to give business advice to businesses. I’m just a regulator,” the acting marijuana commissioner said. “But I would say that they should be building, getting their stuff ready because this is the final hurdle towards the end of their race. There are some folks that are having some struggles with zoning, issues like that, but if they’ve got a facility or acreage that they’re planning to use, they should be working that property.”
