“The culture war over this issue has definitely moved on,” he said. “Even among Republicans, you’re getting very close to a majority supporting legalization outright.”
Recreational marijuana use is now legal in 14 states, as well as the nation’s capital. Some states and municipalities have even made it illegal for employers to consider past marijuana use in pre-employment screenings, as the Biden administration has done.
A Nevada law that took effect last year prevents companies from considering a pre-employment test result for marijuana use; in New York City, a new law disallows employers from doing pre-employment marijuana tests. Those laws don’t apply to positions where safety may be a concern, or to jobs tied to federal programs that require drug testing.
The White House downplayed the layoffs, which were first reported in The Daily Beast last week. “The bottom line is this,” Ms. Psaki wrote on Twitter on Friday. “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.”
Ms. Psaki emphasized that the administration had overhauled previous hiring standards to allow for more leniency. “As a result, more people will serve who would not have in the past with the same level of recent drug use,” she said.
The Daily Beast also reported that the White House had forced out, suspended or reassigned dozens of staff members as a result of marijuana use, but two people close to the situation told The Times last week that was not the case. In an interview, a senior White House official put the number closer to a dozen.
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/22/us/politics/white-house-marijuana-biden.html
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