The White House said five people have been terminated over past marijuana use, although President Joe Biden's administration claimed it would not be a factor even after announcing a more tolerant policy toward past use of the drug a few weeks ago, Reuters reported Sunday.
Staffers from states and Washington D.C., where cannabis use is legal, were fired in the crackdown, according to The Daily Beast. Sources said a number of younger personnel were affected professionally after giving an honest answer to questions during background checks.
"We announced a few weeks ago that the White House had worked with the security service to update the policies to ensure that past marijuana use would not automatically disqualify staff from serving in the White House," Reuters quoted Press Secretary Jen Psaki Psaki as saying in a tweet.
Individual affected staffers shared with The Beast the process was unclear, and there were no strictly outlined protocol during the one-on-one phone inquiry. "They were affected by the policy. I was asked to resign," a former staffer said.
"It exclusively targeted younger staff and those who came from states where cannabis use was legal," the former staffer said in remarks quoted by the Beast.
Psaki tweeted that the White House worked with the security service to "update the policies to ensure that past marijuana use wouldn't automatically disqualify staff" from serving in the White House.
The bottom line, according to Psaki, is of the hundreds of people hired, only five who had started working at the White House have been sacked as a result of the new policy.
Many others with a history of cannabis use are suspended or telecommuting while being subjected to suitability evaluation, the White House said.
"There's confusion across the country because of out of date laws and the fact that the American public is not waiting for the federal government to get its act together," Rep. Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat from Oregon who co-chairs the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, said in a statement.
