You Can Now Become An FBI Agent If You Smoked Weed Over One Year Ago

Yes, it is hard to imagine that the very agency that hunted down weed smokers, weed dealers and weed growers has quietly loosened its policies regarding past marijuana consumption among its potential agents.   

Candidates who have not consumed marijuana for over one full year prior to their application date can now be considered for a job with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

As per Marijuana Moment, the FBI’s previous policies required would-be agents to have abstained from any form of marijuana or cannabis in any location (domestic or foreign), for at least three years.

“Candidates cannot have used marijuana or cannabis in any form (natural or synthetic) and in any location (domestic or foreign) within the one (1) year preceding the date of their application for employment,” according to the FBI’s new employment eligibility form at the agency’s site.

Also, “marijuana or cannabis use before the candidate's 18th birthday is not a disqualifier for FBI employment.”

Benzinga’s Take:

As more and more states join the legalization wave, investors are eagerly looking for new signs of federal legalization to come. While this policy change does not directly affect federal cannabis legislation, it marks a new mood of relaxation on marijuana restrictions by a law enforcement agency within the federal government. 

It might be a practical move that does not necessarily reflect changed attitudes within the FBI.

Though one cannot help but view the action as a shift from outdated drug war attitudes that, among other outrages, insisted on labeling cannabis as a drug with “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse,” which is enshrined in the DEA's classification of marijuana as a Schedule I drug.

In any case, this move - taken with little fanfare from the FBI - is an important development from the country's highest level law enforcement agency. And it was done without a single reference to the fact that cannabis is still federally illegal. Go figure.

Photo: Tony Hisgett at Wikimedia Commons.