Psaki says few White House staffers ousted due to marijuana policy

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

The White House on Friday sought to downplay the number of staffers whose jobs have been derailed by their prior cannabis use.

A Daily Beast article published Thursday reported that “dozens of young White House staffers have been suspended, asked to resign, or placed in a remote work program” because of admissions of prior marijuana use.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that fewer than a half dozen people had fully lost their jobs after disclosing marijuana use.

“The bottom line is this: of the hundreds of people hired, only five people who had started working at the White House are no longer employed as a result of this policy,” she wrote in a two-part message on Twitter.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/psaki-says-few-white-house-staffers-ousted-due-to-marijuana-policy/ar-BB1eL3xt?li=BBnbfcQ&ocid=DELLDHP

[ColinC]

1. interesting.

[IcyPeas]

2. just like that? not given a warning first?

sounds quite harsh.

[lagomorph777]

6. If it's tied to security clearances, there are warnings built into the process.

Almost surely, everybody in the WH needs at least a Secret clearance.

[ZZenith]

3. Still a stupid policy that benefits nobody.

How many were fired for recreational use of alcohol?

[questionseverything]

15. Actually it benefits the alcohol makers

[ZZenith]

16. Who will watch out for the alcohol makers?!

Who’s going to protect their profits?

I mean really, I get that if someone lies on their security clearance paperwork that’s a problem but if one didn’t and one comes from a state where it’s legal, where’s the issue? Unless you’re simply draconian in your attitude towards marijuana.

[questionseverything]

17. Biden has never been pro legalization

His plan was decriminalize, which means fines and “treatment “

Leaving it to the states means mj users will always be criminals under federal law

[Ms. Toad]

18. Recreational use of alcohol is legal, as long as you are an adult.

Recreatonal use of marijuana (and even medical use of marijuana) is a crime. Marijuana is a Schedule I drug (the same as heroin and LSD). No matter now many states legalize it, it is still (everywhere in the US) a federal crime.

[Calculating]

25. And biden has the power to change this

I'll be disappointed if nothing is done about our ridiculously stupid federal mj laws.

[Ms. Toad]

26. Actually, he doesn't. It is a law -

So it has to be changed by Congress, not Biden.

[Calculating]

27. Nixon got it scheduled in group 1 without congress

The federal drug schedules are an executive function

[Ms. Toad]

28. Its halfway between -

It can be changed either by Congress - or through an administrative process (which does give Biden more control over the process).

[MichMan]

29. He could certainly say it wont be enforced

[Ms. Toad]

30. He can certainly deprioritize prosecution of the law.

But that doesn't address the security issue - which is past violations of the law (whether you expect it to be enforced or not).

It's like using marijuana while you are on the medical ransplant list. There are medical reasons not to use it, but the main reason you get removed from the transplant list in most places if you use marijuana is that living with someone else's body part requires a willingness/ability to follow a medical regimen, even when it is inconvenient. If you can't/won't comply with the requirements pre-transplant, the chances that you will be able to comply with the requirements post-transplant are lower.

So the theory is that if you can't comply with the law when no one is trying to get you to bend the rules, you are less likely to comply with it when all sorts of people want to tempt you because of your access to the president.

[lagomorph777]

4. What's the Daily Beast's agenda?

Just sensationalisim?

[Budi]

5. So 'OMG!! DOZENS!" is actually 5 people.

GTFOutta here with that bullshit Daily Beast.

Psaki doesn't have to lie for drama & likes.

[Phoenix61]

7. I'd they failed to disclose on their security clearance

paperwork and then later did disclose I’m not surprised they were let go.

[meadowlander]

8. Suspect this is what happened.

When my cousin was applying for an internship maybe ten years ago, he disclosed one off marijuana use on his security form and got the job anyway.

I don't think they care if the answer is yes. They care if you lie about it in a way that suggests it could later be used to blackmail you.

[Polly Hennessey]

10. Precisely, do not lie.

[Ms. Toad]

19. It depends on the job.

Because marijuana use is a federal crime, using it is an indication of a willingness to violate the law. If compliance with the law is an important criteria for the job, it is the use (not lying about it) that matters. Although lying about it creates separate problems on a federal form that is submitted under penalty of perjury.

[chowder66]

9. "....there were additional factors at play..."

snip

“In an effort to ensure that more people have an opportunity to serve the public, we worked in coordination with the security service to ensure that more people have the opportunity to serve than would not have in the past with the same level of recent drug use,” Psaki said. “While we will not get into individual cases, there were additional factors at play in many instances for the small number of individuals who were terminated.”

Hundreds of aides in the 2-month-old Biden administration have cleared the suitability review by career staffers handling security issues. The White House has said there can be multiple factors for dismissals, including hard drug use. The marijuana policy has become less stringent under the Biden administration, allowing for up to 15 past uses in a year among White House staffers.

The broader federal government has also become somewhat more lenient, with the Office of Personnel Management releasing a memo that says a person should not be deemed unfit merely because of past marijuana usage. The seriousness of the use and the nature of the position will also be factors in judging new hires.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/5-white-house-staffers-lose-jobs-over-drugs-marijuana-use/2021/03/19/45f2402e-88cf-11eb-be4a-24b89f616f2c_story.html?outputType=amp

[Indykatie]

11. The Original Story Failed to Disclose There Were "Other Factors" Involved Besides Marijuana n/t

[Skittles]

12. why is it ANYONE

this sounds like the kind of crap REPUKES WOULD DO

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

13. You mean that, of all the people in the White House, not one smoked a joint in college?

That seems strange and creepy. To this old bozo, anyway.

[questionseverything]

14. Biden has never been pro legalization even though 70 percent of the country wants it

I just wonder how many votes we lose over it

Seems like a stupid hill to die on to me

[sciencescience]

20. Somewhat misleading. Another article says that other factors were at play for some of the staffers.

[Cha]

21. I wonder what the other

factors were? This is the 2nd post I've read about this.

TY!

[MichMan]

23. If they were fired for something else, why mention marijuana at all?

[Gruff B. Gus]

22. That's five too many

[MichMan]

24. I saw reports that they were told past use was OK, so they admitted it

and later got fired. If that is true, that almost seems like entrapment