In 2021, OPM told agencies not to automatically deem the use or possession of marijuana as disqualifying in suitability decisions. Image: Atomazul/Shutterstock.com
HHS has taken a step toward the possible easing the impact of marijuana use on federal employment suitability and security clearance decisions, by recommending that it be downgraded from Class I to Class III on the federal government’s list of controlled substances.
That recommendation, made under a Biden administration directive last year ordering a review, now goes to the DEA, which is not expected to decide until next year at the earliest, however. The HHS recommendation would downgrade marijuana from a category that includes drugs such as heroin to one applying to misuse of prescription drugs such as anabolic steroids.
Marijuana has remained in the highest level of classification—making it potentially disqualifying to become, or remain, a federal employee—even as some three dozen states allow use of marijuana for medical purposes and some two dozen allow limited use by adults for recreational purposes.
Amid those actions, the federal workplace-related policies have loosened somewhat in recent years. In 2021, OPM told agencies not to automatically deem the use or possession of marijuana as disqualifying in suitability decisions, and 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” to eligibility for granting or continuing a security clearance.
A bipartisan bill (HR-5040) pending in the House would make past or current use could no longer grounds for finding an individual unsuitable for federal employment or for denying or revoking a security clearance. That bill has not advanced since being introduced, however.
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