The White House's issues with staffers who (used to) smoke weed show the absurdity of federal marijuana law

• White House officials with histories of marijuana use are having trouble with security clearances.
• Background checks aren’t just about behavioral risk. The government wants workers who follow laws.
• This is a reason you shouldn’t make laws that are widely disrespected and ignored.
• This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.
• See more stories on Insider’s business page.

The Daily Beast reports that the White House has been having a lot of trouble with employees’ history of marijuana use. Past drug use can be a barrier to obtaining a security clearance, and to its credit, the Biden Administration has taken a softer line on marijuana use, which is extremely common and no longer prohibited by many states.

But even in states where weed is legal, possessing it is a violation of federal law, however rarely enforced that law is. And without a blanket amnesty, some employees are being forced to stay home or even having their job offers rescinded.

This is ridiculous. But the key problem isn’t White House personnel policy. It’s the law.

The government wants workers who follow laws

The government has a number of reasons to concern itself with substance use in background checks, and it also asks about alcohol use, which is perfectly legal but can still lead to personal problems.

But aside from the direct effects of intoxicating and habit-forming substances, the government also has an interest in making sure it hires people who believe in following laws. After all, you don’t want a bunch of people with security clearances who substitute “their own best judgment” for what the government tells them to do with secret information.

But this principle breaks down when you have a criminal law that a majority of the public opposes and that is widely and flagrantly flaunted with infrequent consequences.

Especially where it’s permitted by state law, Americans behave like marijuana is legal. Marijuana businesses in those states operate openly in violation of federal laws the government has backed off enforcing. But those laws are still laws. So lawbreaking is widespread, open, notorious, and accepted as though legal — except when someone needs a security clearance.

In this absurd situation, the Biden administration should probably take a more permissive approach to marijuana use. But the best solution would be to end the absurd situation by repealing the federal marijuana laws, so we don’t have such an egregious mismatch between what the law says and what people act like the law says.

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