Pubdate: Tue, 30 Jun 2015
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2015 The New York Times Company
Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Authors: Matthew Rosenberg and Mark Mazzetti

IS MARIJUANA LEGAL IN YOUR STATE? PERHAPS NOT FOR FEDERAL WORK

WASHINGTON - For all the aspiring and current spies, diplomats and 
F.B.I. agents living in states that have liberalized marijuana laws, 
the federal government has a stern warning: Put down the bong, throw 
out the vaporizer and lose the rolling papers.

It may now be legal in Colorado, in Washington State and elsewhere to 
possess and smoke marijuana, but federal laws outlawing its use - and 
rules that make it a firing offense for government workers - have 
remained rigid. As a result, recruiters for federal agencies are 
arriving on university campuses in those states with the sobering 
message that marijuana use will not be tolerated.

So members of a new generation are getting an early lesson in what 
their predecessors have done for as long as there have been 
espionage, diplomacy and bureaucracy. They are lying and stalling 
when necessary to avoid, in the case of the newcomers, failing a drug test.

As any regular marijuana smoker will tell you, it usually takes about 
two weeks for evidence of marijuana use to disappear from urine, a 
urine sample being the method by which drug use ordinarily is tested.

"Delaying something is part of what a good diplomat is supposed to 
know how to do," said John, a young American diplomat who lives in 
Washington, D.C., where marijuana use became legal this year. "If you 
can't put off a test for two weeks, I mean, come on." He spoke on the 
condition that only his first name be used in an effort to avoid 
losing his job.

Government officials who have gotten high are hardly rare, and the 
long list of elected officials who have admitted to past use of 
marijuana - and other substances - starts with President Obama, who 
wrote that he had used both marijuana and cocaine. But there is a 
widening chasm between what voters are willing to tolerate and what 
federal agencies allow, leaving men and women who are trying to build 
careers in government with a choice between honesty and their ambitions.

The C.I.A. requires that its job candidates be "generally" drug free 
for at least a year, and asks potential hires about past use, 
according to Lyssa Asbill, an agency spokeswoman. But how much past 
use constitutes too much is not clear.

The F.B.I. has even tougher standards. The bureau insists that 
recruits refrain from marijuana use for at least three years before hire.

Yet even the director of the F.B.I., James B. Comey, acknowledged 
last year that his agency's rule could hurt recruitment, although no 
federal agency has yet offered specific numbers or other evidence 
that they are having trouble filling jobs. "I have to hire a great 
work force to compete with those cybercriminals, and some of those 
kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview," he said at a 
conference on white collar crime in May 2014.

Some members of Congress were not amused by Mr. Comey's suggestion 
that the F.B.I. needed to ease its drug standards, and he soon made 
it clear that the bureau had no plans to radically revamp its 
policies on marijuana use.

Spy agencies have seen "no discernible impact" in recruitment as a 
result of the changes in state marijuana laws, said Joel Melstad, a 
spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Across the rest of government, standards vary for drug testing and 
for how much past use is permissible.

Law enforcement jobs, unsurprisingly, tend to be the toughest. There 
are also less obvious government employers that insist on testing 
hires before they start, such as the Environmental Protection Agency. 
A posting for an associate director for ecology at the agency on the 
USAjobs.gov website said that "pre-employment drug testing is required."

But the National Park Service, in a posting for a science education 
coordinator, might as well say marijuana smokers are welcome. The 
announcement states outright: "This is not a drug-tested position."

Katherine Archuleta, the director of the Office of Personnel 
Management, which has oversight over the federal bureaucracy, sent a 
government-wide memorandum in late May reminding employees that even 
though several states and the District of Columbia have 
decriminalized marijuana, "federal law on marijuana use remains unchanged."

"Drug involvement can raise questions about an individual's 
reliability, judgment and trustworthiness or ability or willingness 
to comply with laws, rules and regulations," Ms. Archuleta said in 
the memorandum.

The State Department does not test people before they are hired, and 
it has no time period for which applicants must be drug free before 
joining its ranks.

Viewed that way, the State Department's rules may seem relatively 
permissive. Marijuana smokers like John, who was among a small number 
of State Department employees who were selected for testing, get 30 
days to submit to a drug screen.

"That was plenty of time," John said. "I made sure to give myself 18 
or 19 days, and then I did it." Once they have started working, 
federal employees are supposed to grow only basil and oregano in 
their gardens, while their neighbors in Washington are allowed to 
cultivate marijuana.

Based on interviews with a handful of federal workers living here, 
John's marijuana-smoking story is not unique. One recent federal hire 
with a security clearance said he and many of his friends believed 
that the government was basically asking them to lie when applying 
for jobs. The hire, a university graduate from a Western state with 
liberal marijuana laws, was adamant that neither his name nor the 
agency where he was about to start working appear in print.

Another State Department official, who joined the diplomatic corps a 
few years ago, said he had decided to grow a few marijuana plants in 
his backyard. He had tried to grow his own in college, but his 
landlord spotted the plants and quickly halted the project, saying it 
was illegal.

Now, the official owns his home here in Washington, where it is legal 
to grow up to six plants. If discovered, he said, he would claim that 
the plants belonged to his wife, who does not work for the government.

But he was not eager to test that excuse. He asked not to be 
identified, and added: "I don't think I'm going to be having my boss 
over for a cookout."

Mr. Obama, who wrote in his 1995 memoir, "Dreams From My Father," 
that he had frequently used drugs during his youth, is not alone. 
Former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, two 
Republicans who hope to become president, have admitted they smoked 
marijuana in the past.

Mr. Bush said he smoked marijuana while he was a student at Andover, 
adding it was "pretty common" there. Mr. Cruz said through a campaign 
spokesman that he had smoked marijuana in the past but regretted doing so.

The spokesman said Mr. Cruz had "foolishly experimented."

Kitty Bennett contributed research.
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