NY.- Not too long ago, peeing into a cup for a drug test was a widely accepted, if annoying, requirement for starting a new job. The legalization of marijuana in more and more states in recent years changed that, leading many employers to shelve the hiring rules of the “Just Say No” era.
There was one major hurdle: the federal government, by far the largest employer in the nation. But now, it’s also significantly loosening drug screening rules as agencies scramble to replenish the ranks of a rapidly aging workforce in a tight job market.
Over the past five years, the U.S. Army has given more than 3,400 new recruits who failed a drug test on their first day a grace period to try again, according to data obtained through a Drug Enforcement Act request. Freedom of Information. Agencies such as the CIA and FBI have adopted more lenient rules regarding marijuana use among job applicants in the past, officials acknowledge.
And later this year, the Biden administration is expected to take another major step, reducing the depth with which the government digs into the drug histories of people applying for security clearance.
Polls show that more than half of Americans have used marijuana for recreational or medical purposes and that most believe it should be legal. The use of medical cannabis is legal in 38 states and the District of Columbia. Recreational marijuana is legal in 22 states, as well as the nation’s capital, but remains illegal under federal law.
“We don’t want to disqualify half the population, tens of millions of people, for having done something that most of our recent presidents have done,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat who introduced legislation that would make the marijuana immaterial use in security clearance reviews required for many federal jobs. “You are taking a large number of people out of the field.”
Once hired, federal employees are prohibited from using drugs, including marijuana, even in states that have legalized it. And while there was broad support for more permissive hiring policies regarding marijuana use in the past, the changing rules have critics.
When Gen. David H. Berger became a commandant of the Marine Corps in 2019, he expressed concern about the prevalence of drug use among Marines.
“I remain concerned by the extent to which drug abuse is a feature of new recruits, and the fact that the vast majority of recruits require drug exemptions for enlistment,” he wrote in a State of the Infantry report. of Marina. The Marines declined to provide specific data on enlistment drug exemptions.
Until recently, admitting to recent drug use disqualified you from many roles. But even some of the most selective government agencies have relaxed their rules as part of a patchwork of policies that have gone largely unnoticed outside the federal government.
The CIA, for example, began telling applicants in April 2022 that they must abstain from using marijuana for just 90 days before applying, shortening its previous eligibility requirement of one year. In 2021, the FBI lowered its marijuana abstention requirement for job seekers from three to one year.
In December 2021, Avril D. Haines, the director of national intelligence, issued a memo stating that past recreational marijuana use should be considered “relevant,” but “not determinative,” when deciding a person’s fitness. for sensitive national security work.
And late last year, at the urging of senior national security officials, the Office of Personnel Management submitted a proposal to review the security clearance vetting process that would no longer consider people who previously used marijuana a security risk.
Currently, individuals applying for security clearance must disclose a detailed report of their use of illegal drugs over the past seven years. Background checks to issue security clearances explore whether an applicant has told the truth about drug use.
Under the proposed new rules, the government would limit that time period to five years for drugs other than marijuana, and applicants would be required to disclose marijuana use only during the 90 days before seeking the job.
The recent arrest of a Massachusetts Air National Guardsman accused of leaking classified documents has renewed debate in Congress about how the government protects its secrets. But officials said the case had not affected the proposed review of the security clearance verification process for drug history.
A senior intelligence official involved in personnel policy said the government is struggling to recruit people in their 20s as the unemployment rate is one of the lowest in half a century. The official, who declined to be cited by name because proposed changes to government rules are still under review, said it had become clear that the intelligence community needed to adapt to a changing landscape as its employees aged.
The government competes for talent with the private sector, which often offers higher wages, more remote work opportunities and, increasingly, a laissez-faire approach to drug use that does not affect job performance.
Military recruiters question prospective service members about their alcohol and drug use and are instructed to disqualify those with current or past substance abuse problems. A key hurdle arises when recruits are drug tested at a military entry processing station when they officially join. For years, failing that test usually meant getting kicked out on day 1.
In 2022, 4,710 recruits failed their entrance drug tests, an increase of nearly 33 percent from 2020, according to military data.
Between 2018 and 2022, the Army granted waivers to more than 3,300 recruits who failed a drug test or admitted to past drug use that technically made them ineligible, according to Army data. Historically, the Army has been more lenient on waivers than the other services.
The Navy, which had a zero-tolerance policy for those who failed an entry drug test, launched a pilot program in 2021 that allowed recruits the chance to take a second test after 90 days. Over the past three years, the Navy said it has issued drug waivers to 1,375 recruits.
