Marijuana has remained in the highest level of classification of restricted drugs under federal law despite legalization in multiple states. Image: Viktoria UA/Shutterstock.com
Legislation (S-4711) has been offered in the Senate to ease the potential impact of marijuana use on federal careers, by stating that past use may not itself be the basis for negative decisions on “suitability” for employment or on eligibility for security clearances, which are required for many positions.
The bill, offered by Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee chairman Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., is the latest step toward loosening federal employment restrictions on use of marijuana as some three dozen states now allow it in limited amounts for medical or even recreational purposes.
A bill toward the same end (HR-5040) passed the counterpart House Oversight and Accountability Committee last fall, on one of the few bipartisan votes from that committee over substantial federal employment policy issues in this Congress. It has not advanced to a floor vote, however.
The House bill would go a step farther by allowing anyone who was rejected on suitability grounds or denied a clearance since 2007 to request a review of whether marijuana use was the sole reason, and to require the agency to reconsider the decision if so.
Marijuana has remained in the highest level of classification of restricted drugs under federal law—making it potentially disqualifying to become, or remain, a federal employee—even as states have changed their laws.
The bills would put into law some changes to federal workplace policies of recent years that now exist only in the form of guidance—which could in turn be reversed by only further guidance.
In 2021, OPM told agencies not to automatically deem the use or possession of marijuana as disqualifying in suitability decisions. The following 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” for granting or continuing a security clearance.
Separately, the Justice Department recently recommended that marijuana be downgraded on the federal list of controlled substances, the latest step in a process that still would require many months or even several years to complete. Even if downgraded, though, it still would be illegal under federal law.
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