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A newly announced review of federal policies on marijuana could have implications for federal employees, since its categorization under the federal Controlled Substances Act affects determinations of both “suitability” for federal employment and eligibility for security clearances that are necessary for many federal jobs.
President Biden ordered HHS and Justice to review marijuana’s current classification as in Schedule I under the Controlled Substances Act, saying that is the same level “as for heroin and LSD, and even higher than the classification of fentanyl and methamphetamine.”
That is part of a broader initiative that includes planned widespread pardons for those convicted of simple possession under federal law and encouraging states to do the same under their law. About three dozen states have decriminalized marijuana for medical purposes and nearly two dozen have done so for limited recreational use.
OPM said in a 2021 memo that because federal law overrides state law in that area, that classification affects suitability determinations for both prospective and continued federal employment. Those determinations are based on a list of factors that include several that could be implicated by use or possession of marijuana including illegal use of narcotics, drugs, or other controlled substances and criminal or dishonest conduct.
However, OPM also told agencies not to automatically deem the use or possession of marijuana as disqualifying, saying “the individual’s conduct must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis to determine the impact, if any, to the integrity and the efficiency of the government.”
Then earlier this year the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a policy statement similarly saying that past recreational marijuana use should not by itself be “determinative” to eligibility for granting or continuing a security clearance. Other factors to be considered in an adjudication, it said, include “frequency of use and whether the individual can demonstrate that future use is unlikely to recur.”
Removing the Schedule I categorization of marijuana—already suggestions have arisen to create a special category for it—could mean that employees and job applicants no longer would have to qualify under such distinctions. There is no timetable for the administration’s review except that Biden ordered that it be done “expeditiously.”
The House earlier this year passed a bill (HR-3617) to decriminalize the use of marijuana at the federal level but the Senate has not acted on it.
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