The Puerto Rico Police Department relaxes entry requirements related to cannabis use.

In an effort to modernize recruitment processes and attract more qualified candidates, the Commissioner of the Puerto Rico Police Bureau, Antonio López Figueroa (along with statements from the FBI Director on the island, Joseph González), announced a significant change in the internal regulations of the uniformed force.

The new directive states that cadet applicants who have used cannabis in the past will now only need to certify that one year has passed since their last use. Previously, the regulations were much more restrictive, requiring a period of abstinence of at least five years before being eligible to apply to the academy.

According to Joseph Gonzalez, this measure is not an isolated act, but rather seeks to emulate current FBI rules. The main objective is to prevent the Bureau from losing valuable talent due to past decisions made by young people that do not define their current ability to serve the country.

"We seek not to lose good talent due to bad practices or a decision made in the past when they were younger," the police authority emphasized.

Key points of the new measure:

Generational openness: It is recognized that the old regulations were excluding qualified young people who meet the rest of the physical and ethical requirements.

Focus on talent: The priority is to evaluate the candidate for their current integrity and service potential, beyond previous administrative offenses for experimental consumption.

Modernization: Puerto Rico joins the trend of law enforcement agencies in the United States that have relaxed these terms in light of the current social reality.

This update comes into effect immediately for the next Police Academy calls, always maintaining the rigor in the current doping tests and the corresponding background evaluations.