Marijuana possession and use is now legal in Washington, D.C., the epicenter of the federal workforce, but federal employees shouldn’t get any new ideas on how to take the edge off the daily grind.
An Obama administration official said there are no plans to change an executive order from the Reagan administration forbidding federal employees from using drugs that are illegal under federal law whether on or off duty. Marijuana is still illegal under federal law, even though the District of Columbia has chosen to decriminalize it.
Brielle Pettinelli explains the "ROOT" small-scale growing system to Anthony Torres and Mike Carusotti at a cannabis expo and job fair at the Holiday Inn Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Feb, 28, 2015. (The Washington Post/Getty Images)
The same is true for federal employees living in Colorado, Washington state and Alaska, where voters also approved ballot measures to allow recreational use of marijuana.
In 2013, the Justice Department issued a policy that it would not interfere with state and local law enforcement of marijuana laws in light of the then-new voter-approved laws in Washington state and Colorado. However, the Justice Department still asserted that marijuana is illegal under federal law.
The Obama administration policy has not changed and marijuana remains illegal under federal law, an administration official told TheBlaze Tuesday in response to a question if President Barack Obama would consider reversing the 1986 executive order on federal employees and drug use.
A sitting president can change any previous president's executive action.
The Reagan executive order from September 1986 requires the head of each executive branch agency to establish a testing program for illegal drug use of employees in “sensitive positions,” according to The Hill. Sensitive positions would include government workers with access to sensitive and classified information, generally in the national security, intelligence or military, but could include other areas of work.
“The federal law prohibits marijuana use,” R. Scott Oswald, managing principal at The Employment Law Group told The Hill. “Say you work for [the Department of Defense] in D.C., the fact that it’s legal has no bearing at all for the federal worker.”
Meanwhile, Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) announced they will cosponsor a bill to legalize medical use of marijuana under federal law.
