SEATTLE (AP) — The FBI is refusing to run nationwide
background checks on people applying to run legal marijuana businesses
in Washington state, even though it has conducted similar checks in
Colorado — a discrepancy that illustrates the quandary the Justice
Department faces as it allows the states to experiment with regulating a
drug that’s long been illegal under federal law.
Washington state
has been asking for nearly a year if the FBI would conduct background
checks on its applicants, to no avail. The bureau’s refusal raises the
possibility that people with troublesome criminal histories could wind
up with pot licenses in the state — undermining the department’s own
priorities in ensuring that states keep a tight rein on the nascent
industry.
It’s a strange jam for the feds, who announced last
summer that they wouldn’t sue to prevent Washington and Colorado from
regulating marijuana after 75 years of prohibition.
The Obama
administration has said it wants the states to make sure pot revenue
doesn’t go to organized crime and that state marijuana industries don’t
become a cover for the trafficking of other illegal drugs. At the same
time, it might be tough for the FBI to stomach conducting such
background checks — essentially helping the states violate federal law.
The
Justice Department declined to explain why it isn’t conducting the
checks in Washington when it has in Colorado. Stephen Fischer, a
spokesman for the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division,
referred an Associated Press inquiry to DOJ headquarters, which would
only issue a written statement.
"To ensure a consistent national
approach, the department has been reviewing its background check
policies, and we hope to have guidance for states in the near term," it
said in its entirety.
In Washington, three people so far have
received licenses to grow marijuana — without going through a national
background check, even though the state Liquor Control Board’s rules
require that that they do so before a license is issued.
"The
federal government has not stated why it has not yet agreed to conduct
national background checks on our behalf," Washington state Liquor
Control Board spokesman Brian Smith said in an email. "However, the
Liquor Control Board is ready to deliver fingerprints as soon as DOJ is
ready."
In the meantime, officials are relying on background
checks by the Washington State Patrol to catch any in-state arrests or
convictions. Applicants must have lived in Washington state for three
months before applying, and many are longtime Washington residents whose
criminal history would likely turn up on a State Patrol check. But
others specifically moved to the state in hopes of joining the new
industry.
"Both Washington state and Washington, D.C., have been
unequivocal that they want organized crime out of the marijuana
business," said Alison Holcomb, the Seattle lawyer who authored the
legal pot law. "Requiring, and ensuring, nationwide background checks on
Washington state licensees is a no-brainer."
The FBI has run
nationwide background checks since 2010 on applicants who sought to be
involved in medical marijuana dispensaries in Colorado, Daria Serna, a
spokeswoman for that state’s Department of Revenue, said in an email.
The applicants provide fingerprints to Revenue’s Marijuana Enforcement
Division, which turns them over to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
The agency conducts a statewide background check and supplies the
prints to the FBI for a national check.
Because Colorado launched
its marijuana industry by converting medical dispensaries to
recreational pot shops, it’s likely that no additional background checks
were required for the key employees of those shops, Serna said.
However, all new employees of recreational or medical shops must undergo
the same background checks — and those are still being processed, Serna
said.
In Washington, officials use a point system to determine
whether someone’s criminal history is too concerning to grant them a
license to grow, process or sell marijuana under the state’s law, passed
by voters in 2012. A felony within the past 10 years normally
disqualifies an applicant, as does being under federal or state
supervision for a felony conviction.
The state received more than
7,000 applications during a monthlong window that began in November.
Applicants are required to supply fingerprints and disclose their
criminal history, with omissions punishable by license forfeiture or
denial. But without a federal background check, there’s no way for state
officials to verify what the applicants report.
Under rules
adopted by the Liquor Control Board, the applicants’ fingerprints must
be submitted to the State Patrol and the FBI for checks as a condition
of receiving a license. Asked whether issuing licenses without the FBI
check contradicted that rule, Smith wrote: "Applicants have provided the
prints necessary for running the check."
Deborah Collinsworth,
manager of the Washington State Patrol’s Identification and Criminal
History Section, said she first asked the FBI in April 2013 about
conducting national background checks on pot-business applicants.
"They haven’t responded because marijuana is still federally illegal," Collinsworth said.
"That’s the rub."
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AP writer Kristen Wyatt contributed from Denver.
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