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Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer signed legislation April 24 that amends requirements for fingerprint-based background checks for those wishing to work in, own or help run licensed adult-use cannabis businesses.
The legislation, House Bill 110, aligns state code with Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) standards to obtain a service code to run the background checks. The state’s adult-use rollout remains sidelined until the Delaware Office of the Marijuana Commissioner (OMC) obtains the service code to run the background checks on aspiring entrepreneurs.
The OMC announced March 31 that the FBI rejected its revised application for the service code because language in the Delaware Code was too vague regarding who would be subject to the background checks. State Rep. Ed Osienski, D-Newark, filed H.B. 110 on April 3 as a fix, and it took a lightning three weeks from introduction to Meyer’s signing.
“Delaware’s recreational cannabis industry is going to create good-paying jobs and provide critical revenue for the state to help pay for schools, housing and health care,” Meyer said in his signing statement. “House Bill 110 will strengthen our background check requirements, align our practices with federal standards and safeguard public trust.”
The setback from the FBI’s denied service code came two years after former Gov. John Carney allowed complementary adult-use legalization bills to go into effect without his signature in April 2023.
When the OMC held lotteries to award 125 conditional licenses to adult-use business applicants in late 2024, including 60 cultivation, 30 manufacturing, 30 retail and five testing lab applicants, state regulators had intended to stand up the regulated market by launching sales in March 2025. However, under state law, they can’t officially issue the licenses until the background checks are performed.
Delaware’s former marijuana commissioner, Rob Coupe, whom Carney appointed, resigned in early January and could not see the intended sales launch through.
Two weeks ago, during his State of the State address on April 10, Meyer said that the tens of millions of dollars in expected annual tax revenue from adult-use sales could be used to cover federal funding shortfalls and address historic inequities created by the drug war.
“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,” the governor said. “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.”
On April 21, Meyer named Joshua Sanderlin, an attorney and government regulations expert, to serve as Delaware’s next marijuana commissioner to fill Coupe’s vacancy.
In his signing statement on H.B. 110 this week, Meyer assured he and the OMC will keep pressing to get Delaware’s adult-use industry launched “quickly and with integrity.”
In addition to serving as a legislative fix to meet federal requirements to gain access to the FBI’s background information, H.B. 110 also updates parts of Delaware’s licensing rules to help ensure the background checks are administered with transparency and fairness.
Those required to complete the background checks include:
- An applicant for a cannabis establishment license;
- A person who performs work at or for a cannabis establishment, whether classified as a contractor, employee or volunteer, with or without compensation, and prior to beginning work;
- A person who is or seeks to become a director, officer, board member or agent of a licensed cannabis establishment or a business entity that is an applicant for a cannabis establishment license; and
- A person who holds an ownership interest of 10% or more in a licensed cannabis establishment or a business entity that is an applicant for a cannabis establishment license.
“I am grateful to Gov. Meyer and my colleagues in the General Assembly for getting this legislation to the finish line as quickly as possible,” Osienski said. “With H.B. 110 now law, I’m hopeful the Office of the Marijuana Commissioner will be able to secure the necessary approvals to establish the background check system needed to move Delaware’s adult-use cannabis industry forward.”
