Mont. Co. supervisors suspend fingerprinting requirements at cannabis businesses

SALINAS, Calif. (KION) The Monterey County Board of Supervisors is suspending fingerprinting requirements of employees and property owners who work in the marijuana industry.

Currently, employees and property owners must scan and submit their fingerprints to the Monterey County Sheriff's Office in order for a marijuana company to obtain a business permit.

Business owners say that process makes it hard to hire workers who may not want to share their bio-information. The concerns are partly related to immigration enforcement concerns.

"I don't think we have to be so overzealous by having them go to the Live 
Scan (fingerprinting software) place and get a fingerprint and all of that," said Joey Espinoza, a marijuana industry representative. "A lot of their labor force was concerned and fearful of having to go to the sheriff's office and get fingerprinted."

"A lot of them are worried about their immigration status and don't want to be added to any sort of government list that shows that they may be working for a cannabis operation," continued Espinoza.

We reached out to the Monterey County Sheriff's to ask why they see the need for fingerprinting. But we did not hear back from them in time for this story.

The District Attorney's Office says they prefer to keep fingerprinting requirements in place to deter people with criminal records from getting inside information on a dispensary and to prevent people under 21 from working at a shop.

Industry leaders say they would rather do other, less intrusive measures for security.

"I think if we did private background checks like other businesses do and 
there's a robbery or something that comes up that they need to investigate, 
we can provide that data to them," said Espinoza.

While the board did suspend the use of Live Scan fingerprinting for employees and property owners, they will look into other options to bolster safety at dispensaries like private background checks.