On March 25, Congressman Mondaire Jones joined other democratic House colleagues in sending a letter to President Joe Biden asking him to rectify instances in which several White House staffers were reportedly suspended, put on probation, or asked to resign after honestly disclosing past cannabis use. In addressing these reports, the letter urges the White House to clarify its employment suitability policies, remove past cannabis use as a potential disqualifier, and apply these policies with consistency and fairness.
“While we work to de-schedule cannabis legislatively, your administration should act within its power to stop legitimizing unfair cannabis laws,” the lawmakers wrote to President Biden. “You have previously expressed your commitment to decriminalizing cannabis in acknowledgement that a cannabis conviction or even the stigma of cannabis use can ruin lives and prevent people from voting, gaining employment, and contributing to society. You can meet this moment and help end our failed punitive policy of cannabis prohibition.”
In their letter to President Biden on Thursday, the lawmakers noted that cannabis is legal for either medical or adult use in 36 states, with more than 50% of the adult population having used cannabis in their lifetimes. That includes former presidents and current senior officials.
“The existing policies have been applied in inconsistent and unfair ways,” the lawmakers added. “Those in the upper ranks of your administration won’t face consequences for their cannabis use, and nor should they, but the same standard should be applied across the administration. Repercussions for cannabis use have always been unequal and those with the most power have always faced the fewest consequences. We ask that you don’t allow that pattern to continue within your administration.”
In addition to Jones, Blumenauer, Beyer, Huffman, and Lee, the letter was signed by Reps. Joaquin Castro, Steve Cohen, Gerald Connolly, Peter DeFazio, Theodore Deutch, Adriano Espaillat, Dwight Evans, Jesús “Chuy” García, Alcee Hastings, Pramila Jayapal, Henry “Hank” Johnson, Jr., Ro Khanna, Ted Lieu, Alan Lowenthal, James McGovern, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Ilhan Omar, Mark Pocan, Ayanna Pressley, Jan Schakowsky, Eric Swalwell, Rashida Tlaib, Nydia Velázquez, Bonnie Watson Coleman, and Peter Welch.
The Daily Beast reported on March 19 that, “dozens of young White House staffers have been suspended, asked to resign, or placed in a remote work program due to past marijuana use.” The axes fell on some, even though a few “staffers were informally told by transition higher-ups ahead of formally joining the administration that they would likely overlook some past marijuana use, only to be asked later to resign.”
After the story broke, White House press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted “The bottom line is this: of the hundreds of people hired, only five people who had started working at the White House are no longer employed as a result of this policy.”
While the Biden administration’s response is that only five employees were asked to leave, it doesn’t identify how many applicants who admitted recent marijuana use were disqualified before being hired.
But Psaki added, “In an effort to ensure that more people have an opportunity to serve the public, we worked in coordination with the security service to ensure that more people have the opportunity to serve than would not have in the past with the same level of recent drug use. While we will not get into individual cases, there were additional factors at play in many instances for the small number of individuals who were terminated.”
Our Federal policies about the use of Marijuana have not kept up with the legalization efforts in more than two dozen States.
Clearance required for many of the positions with access to The White House, and the completion of a background questionnaire which does ask about marijuana use. The purpose of including the question or marijuana use on a federal employment application is to make sure that employees cannot be blackmailed by a foreign agent or government. But supporters of legalizing recreational marijuana find that argument ridiculous.
If you have smoked pot in recent years, and don’t disclose it on your application, and if the FBI interviews your friends and family and finds out that you did smoke, you’re also not getting the job.
Supporters of legalizing also use the comparison with Alcohol, and how many federal employees have been put in compromising situations with foreign governments because they were drunk.
Congress must decide and pass legislation to remove marijuana from the list of Schedule 1 drugs, which also includes Cocaine and Heroin.
