Last verified: May 2026
The FBI CJIS Division — The Largest Federal Footprint in West Virginia
The FBI Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division opened its Clarksburg campus in 1995 after Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-WV) secured the headquarters relocation from Washington, D.C. The campus at 1000 Custer Hollow Road sits on 986 acres on the southern edge of Clarksburg, with a main complex of approximately 500,000 square feet. CJIS is the operational nerve center for federal-state-local law-enforcement information sharing and biometric services. Its core systems include:
- NCIC (National Crime Information Center) — the nationwide database queried by every law-enforcement officer in the United States during routine traffic stops and investigations
- NICS (National Instant Criminal Background Check System) — the firearm-purchase background check system mandated by the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act
- NGI / IAFIS (Next Generation Identification / Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System) — the FBI’s biometric and fingerprint database, holding more than 100 million records
- UCR (Uniform Crime Reporting) Program and the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)
- LEEP (Law Enforcement Enterprise Portal), the gateway by which state and local agencies access federal data
CJIS employs more than 3,000 federal workers directly, plus a substantial contractor workforce. CJIS is the largest federal employer in West Virginia and one of the largest single-site employers of any kind in the state.
Federal Drug Testing — Why a WV Card Doesn’t Help
Every CJIS employee, contractor, and applicant for a position requiring access to FBI systems is subject to federal background investigation, federal drug testing, and federal employment policy. Under the Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988, federal employees cannot use cannabis — medical or otherwise — even in states where it is legal. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the FBI’s own employment policies treat marijuana use as disqualifying for federal employment regardless of state medical-card status.
The FBI Special Agent and Professional Staff Drug Use Policy in particular has historically been one of the strictest in federal employment, with both lifetime-use thresholds and recent-use bars. The April 2026 federal Schedule III rescheduling order does not change this — rescheduling addresses DEA drug-control schedules; it does not modify the Drug-Free Workplace Act or executive-branch personnel suitability adjudications. As a practical matter, CJIS employees who hold WV medical cannabis cards risk loss of clearance, loss of employment, and loss of the ability to ever work in federal law enforcement again. See FBI/federal clearances page.
Verano Clarksburg Dispensary and the Harrison County Patient Population
Despite the federal-employment overhang, Harrison County has an active medical cannabis patient population. Verano Holdings operates a Clarksburg dispensary (Verano Zen Leaf Clarksburg) serving Harrison and surrounding north-central counties. The dispensary serves patients across the Clarksburg-Fairmont-Bridgeport corridor and the smaller surrounding counties (Doddridge, Lewis, Upshur, Barbour, Taylor) where in-county dispensary access is limited.
Patient demographics in the Clarksburg area skew toward severe chronic pain, PTSD (the region has a substantial veteran population), and cancer qualifying conditions. The Harrison County medical-program participation rate is constrained by the federal-employment workforce share but is otherwise consistent with the state median. See WV operators page.
Curative Growth Fairmont — Marion County’s Dispensary
Fairmont (Marion County, ~17,000) sits ~20 miles north of Clarksburg along I-79, midway between Clarksburg and Morgantown. Curative Growth, one of the WV-rooted operators, runs the Fairmont dispensary. Fairmont’s economy historically rested on coal and glass; today it includes a substantial federal footprint of its own, including the NASA Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) Facility at the Fairmont Robert H. Mollohan Research Center. NASA IV&V employees, like FBI CJIS employees, are subject to federal drug-testing and Drug-Free Workplace Act obligations.
Fairmont also hosts the I-79 Technology Park, an aerospace and federal-contractor business park. The combination of federal labor and federal contractors makes Marion County another north-central WV community where the workforce-cannabis collision is acute.
Bridgeport, the United Hospital Center, and the Harrison County Healthcare Cluster
Bridgeport (Harrison County, ~9,000) is Clarksburg’s eastern suburb and home to United Hospital Center (UHC), a major regional healthcare facility serving north-central West Virginia. UHC is part of the WVU Medicine system. As a Joint Commission-accredited hospital operating under Medicare/Medicaid Conditions of Participation, UHC and other WVU Medicine facilities maintain Drug-Free Workplace policies. Healthcare professional licensure in West Virginia (Board of Medicine, Board of Nursing, Board of Pharmacy) carries additional risk for cannabis-using practitioners. See healthcare boards page.
Bridgeport also hosts the North Central West Virginia Airport (CKB), an FAA-regulated facility where pilots, mechanics, and air-traffic controllers are subject to FAA / 14 C.F.R. Part 120 drug testing. FAA regulations are unaffected by state medical cannabis programs.
NIOSH Morgantown Nearby — The North-Central WV Federal Cluster
Clarksburg, Bridgeport, Fairmont, and Morgantown together form a north-central WV federal-employment cluster. In addition to CJIS and the FBI Biometric Technology Center adjacent to it, the regional federal footprint includes:
- NIOSH Morgantown — CDC’s major occupational-health research campus (~30 miles northeast)
- U.S. Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) Morgantown — energy research
- NASA IV&V Fairmont — software-assurance facility
- FAA / North Central WV Airport Bridgeport — aviation regulation
Across this regional cluster, federal employment is a significant share of the workforce, and federal employment uniformly carries Drug-Free Workplace obligations that no state medical card overrides.
Clarksburg / FBI CJIS Cannabis Reality
- FBI CJIS: 1000 Custer Hollow Road; 500,000 sq ft / 986 acres; 3,000+ employees
- Largest federal employer in WV: NCIC, NICS, NGI/IAFIS, UCR all run from Clarksburg
- Federal drug-testing exposure: WV card does not protect federal employees (Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988)
- Verano Clarksburg + Curative Growth Fairmont: the two operating dispensaries in the area
- NASA IV&V Fairmont + NIOSH Morgantown + NETL: north-central federal cluster
- UHC Bridgeport: WVU Medicine regional hospital with healthcare-board exposure
For in-depth cannabis education, dosing guides, safety information, and research summaries, visit our partner site TryCannabis.org