CANNABIS AND FEDERAL EMPLOYEES | HIGH MOMMAS - By: Alexandra Suárez

As Congress works to end the federal prohibition on marijuana (cannabis), a key lawmaker says he will soon introduce a bill aimed at protecting federal workers from being denied marijuana security clearances.

On November 18 of this year, Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) previewed his upcoming legislation on marijuana legalization during a hearing held on Tuesday, November 15, 2022, before a House Oversight subcommittee he chairs. While the bill has not yet been formally introduced, he explained that it would address federal employment issues that remain unresolved under criminalization.

“We have 2.85 million federal employees in the United States, and in my state, more than 100,000 people,” Raskin said. “And people have been disqualified from federal jobs because they honestly admit on a security clearance form that they once used marijuana, something more than half the country has done.”

“I’ve had many constituents I’ve spoken with who were elected to a major federal position after a rigorous interview process, only to be rejected in the security clearance process because they admitted to having used marijuana once,” the congressman said.

This isn't the first time Raskin has raised the issue. Just before the House passed a marijuana legalization bill earlier this year, he introduced an amendment to require federal agencies to review security clearance denials dating back to 1971 and retroactively prohibit cannabis from being used as a reason to deny or revoke a security clearance. However, that measure was narrowly defeated in a vote. Now he said he will "promote" separate legislation "to address that issue."

The text of Raskin's bill is not yet available, so it is unclear whether the scope will only cover past cannabis use, for example, or whether it would allow federal employees living in states that have enacted legalization to continue using marijuana on their own time and still maintain their security clearances.

While the Biden administration instituted a policy last year authorizing exemptions for certain workers who admit to prior cannabis use, Raskin said Tuesday that “too often I hear from people who tell me it functions as an automatic instant disqualification system for their employment.”

"This is a small aspect of a whole regime of injustice that has grown up around the war on marijuana."

It is very possible that federal legalization of cannabis is just around the corner.