SPONSOR: Roberts
COMMITTEE ACTION: Voted "Do Pass with HCS" by the Standing Committee on Crime Prevention and Public Safety by a vote of 21 to 0. Voted "Do Pass" by the Standing Committee on Rules- Administrative Oversight by a vote of 7 to 0.
The following is a summary of the House Committee Substitute for HB 766.
This bill specifies that the Department of Health and Senior Services will require all employees, contractors who do work at a marijuana facility for more than 14 days per year, owners, and volunteers of marijuana facilities to submit fingerprints to the State Highway Patrol for the purpose of conducting a state and federal fingerprint-based criminal background check. The fingerprint submissions may be part of a facility application, a renewal application, or an individual's application for a license or permit authorizing the person to be an employee, contractor, owner, or volunteer of a facility. Fingerprint cards and any required fees will be sent to the Highway Patrol's Central Repository.
The following is a summary of the public testimony from the committee hearing. The testimony was based on the introduced version of the bill.
PROPONENTS: Supporters say that this deals with background checks for marijuana facilities and only certain people who work for these facilities will have to submit to fingerprints and background checks. This will make sure we stay in compliance with federal law and Amendment 3. The Department of Health and Senior Services implements this and this just stays consistent with the Constitution for medical and recreational marijuana. The amendment says you have to do background checks but they need statutory authority to run the background checks. This piece is critical to keeping us in compliance with the "Cole Memorandum".
Testifying in person for the bill were Representative Roberts; Lt. Collin M. Strosberg, Missouri State Highway Patrol; Ben Terrell, Department of Health & Senior Services; Tom Robbins, Mo CANN Trade.
OPPONENTS: Those who oppose the bill say that people in Missouri voted to legalize cannabis and have been asking for it for years. The legislature could have passed this but they didn t so they did it via amendment. Now the legislature wants to come in and fingerprint everyone who wants to get a job in this type of facility, then, if they make it illegal again, they will have everyone s fingerprints.
Testifying in person against the bill was Kevin Hertel.
Written testimony has been submitted for this bill. The full written testimony and witnesses testifying online can be found under Testimony on the bill page on the House website.
Statutes affected: