United States: Five White House employees fired for cannabis

They had used cannabis before arriving in Washington. And this action, though legal, has just cost them their jobs at the White House. Five employees of the U.S. presidency were thus fired for using cannabis, information revealed by The Daily Beast. However, all of the individuals implicated had taken the substance in one of the 15 states where it is legal in the United States, the online tabloid continues.

«There were individual calls with the employees… or rather, the former employees.". "I was asked to resign," said one of them, speaking on condition of anonymity. No one explained anything to me. Neither theneither the policy on the matter, nor the threshold for what was excusable—or what was not! »

This news comes at a very bad time for the Biden administration. In late February, the White House announced that using the plant would no longer automatically prevent someone from working in the presidency. «Of the hundreds of people hired, only five who had started working at the White House are no longer employed there as a result of this new policy.», The presidential spokesperson defends herself on Twitter.

National security issue highlighted

According to the Biden administration, the dismissal of these five employees is justified on national security grounds. In the land of Uncle Sam, it’s impossible to be hired at the FBI – the federal police – if cannabis has been used within the last three years. For the NSA, the digital intelligence agency, this timeframe is reduced to one year. However, the White House takes a case-by-case approach.

«We have worked with the National Security Agency to ensure that more people have the opportunity to serve their country. This would not have been possible in the past given the same level of drug use.", the White House spokesperson told The Daily Beast. »I won't go into the specifics of each case. But there are other reasons at play for those who were laid off."

However, the «national security» argument doesn’t hold water—especially when employees are using cannabis completely legally, in a state where it’s permitted. For young columnist Hayes Brown, the White House’s cannabis testing policy makes sense. «C‘is' »to find out who might be vulnerable to blackmail by a foreign government, and thus might sell American secrets,", he explains. Problem: «Unless the Biden administration can prove that people who have smoked from a bong in their California apartment are at risk of giving away the nuclear codes, this decision is quite ridiculous« , the MSNBC commentator quips.