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There’s a new bill in the works that would allow federal employees to use marijuana without the fear of legal repercussions.

Currently, marijuana is still illegal at the federal level. In other words, getting caught with it while on the job leads to contract termination. This is true even in case they reside in a state where marijuana is legal.

However, Congressman Charlie Crist introduced the “Fairness in Federal Drug Testing Under State Laws Act”, which would shake things up quite a bit in this regard.

Still, there are some notable exceptions in it. For example, if there were reasons to believe that the federal employee was under the influence of marijuana while on the job (rather than just possessing it), consequences would follow.

The U.S. is moving towards legalizing marijuana, including personal use. Currently, the District of Columbia makes recreational use completely legal, and it’s where many federal agencies and their staff reside.

Under the Obama administration, the states were free to make their own rules regarding marijuana usage, but ever since the Trump administration has come in effect, some of these benefits have been reversed.

Still, there has been some effort in Congress to legalize marijuana at the federal level, following the fact that many states have legalized it locally in one way or another.

Last month, Senator Charles Schumer introduced the Marijuana Freedom and Opportunity Act. If it goes through, marijuana would effectively be removed from the list of controlled substances (at the federal level). At the time of writing, though, things are still the same.

Source:

https://www.fedsmith.com/2018/07/29/bill-protect-jobs-federal-employees-using-marijuana/