So as marijuana legalization spreads nationwide, more people are
getting high and this is forcing the federal government to
consider relaxing its drug testing and use restrictions. So
senior reporter Chloe A has been looking into this.
So Chloe, what's the government actually proposing here?
The Biden administration has taken heat over its lack of
action on federal drug policy. But at least when
it comes to federal employees, things may finally be
shifting under new proposed rules. People applying for security
clearance would have to disclose their drug use only for
the past five years, which is down from seven
years and when it comes to cannabis use, they
would only have to disclose anything used in the past
90 days. Until recently, recent drug use would
disqualify applicants for some of the most selective agencies in
the US like the CIA. But even the CIA
these days requires applicants only to cease cannabis use for
90 days prior to application and down from a gear
that change happened in 2022. The FBI still requires
abstention for about a year but that used to be
three years and shifting sentiment around cannabis and legalization are
driving these changes here in the US. Medical cannabis
is legal in 40 US states and DC and don't
use cannabis is legal in 22 meaning a majority of
Americans live somewhere where cannabis is legal to some degree
and an overwhelming majority of Americans support some form of
legalization. 59% support medical and adult use and 30%
support medical only legalization according to Pew, that leaves
just 10% who say they don't support legalization at all
. This also means that more Americans are using cannabis
. Commander Dave Benon, a Navy spokesperson told the
New York Times quote, we recognize that changes in
state laws concerning marijuana around the country mean that a
portion of our target demographic of 17 to 24 year
olds are more likely to have used T H C
. This change is evident in the growing number of
potential recruits who have been issued waivers by the US
military for past use or failed drug tests. According
to the New York Times, the army granted 3300
waivers to recruits from 2018 to 2022 who had failed
drug tests or admitted to past cannabis use that would
have previously disqualified them. The Navy has a zero
tolerance policy for failed drug tests but it introduced a
pilot program in 2021. Shifting its policy to allow
recruits to take the test after 90 days if they
had failed the first drug test. The Navy granted
1375 waivers to recruits over a three year span.
In 2021 the Biden administration had said it wouldn't immediately
disqualify staffers who admitted to past cannabis use. Younger
staffers at the time took that to mean that they
had relaxed their policy. But if you can recall
, ultimately, dozens of younger staffers who had admitted
to past use were suspected, asked to resign or
relegated to remote work. That was of course,
according to a Daily Beast report, it even applied
to some employees in states where cannabis was legal.
So of course, this policy has been tried in
the past. We're gonna have to follow and see
how this new roll out works. Duarte. Thanks
so much for that. Great info.