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Less frequent criminal record checks for retail cannabis workers

Workers in the non-medical cannabis industry will now only have to go through security checks every five years, instead of the current two. That’s the news released today by the B.C.
Cannabis
The City of Richmond will make a recommendation to the federal and provincial governments for no farm use for the production of marijuana in the city, but industrial use only. File photo

Workers in the non-medical cannabis industry will now only have to go through security checks every five years, instead of the current two.

That’s the news released today by the B.C. government, which claims the move will allow help with the cannabis retail industry's need for more security-screened workers, as well as reducing costs to cannabis workers and reducing interruptions from having to go through criminal record checks.

The government claims the move will also “allow provincial security screening resources to focus on the qualification of new workers rather than the requalification of current workers who are already working in the legal cannabis retail industry.”

Security screening and re-screening requirements were implemented as a measure to keep organized crime out of the legal, non-medical cannabis market.

Screenings involve background checks with police, courts and corrections databases. To date, 4,300 workers have been screened.

All workers with a current valid security screening will have their security verification period extended from the date of their initial verification. Security verifications for all new workers will be valid for five years.