A GOP congressman wants to stop the Department of Defense from using funds to test for marijuana in people who are applying to join the military, or being appointed as officers of an armed service.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-FL, filed an amendment in order to implement the reform via appropriations legislation that covers DOD. This is one of the most recent examples of how legislators are using spending bills to make cannabis policy changes during this session.
The text of the measure states that “no funds provided by this Act can be used to force an individual to undergo a cannabis test as a requirement for enlistment as a member or commission as an officer of an Armed Forces.”
Robert Garcia (D-CA), Daniel Goldman, (D-NY), and other members of Congress have proposed a separate amendment that would prohibit the use funding for testing federal job candidates at DOD on marijuana.
The House Rules Committee will now decide if the measures are in order to be considered on the floor. The GOP-controlled committee has prevented numerous other bipartisan amendments on drug policy reform to other appropriations bills this session. However, it has allowed some key marijuana and psychoactives proposals to move forward.
Garcia has tried to get his cannabis drug test proposal passed by submitting similar versions of amendments to spending bills for Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies and Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies.
The MilCon/VA Amendment was not allowed to be brought to the House floor. However, bipartisan legislators have praised the passage by the House of the legislation which included separate marijuana and psychoactive substances measures. The Rules Committee has not yet considered Garcia’s amendment.
The three versions of Gacria’s amendment have the same goal, which is to reform federal agencies’ drug testing policies on cannabis. However, the text has some differences. They use different names to describe federal drug laws, and they also differ when it comes the list of states covered by the reform. One version excludes Ohio and Pennsylvania from the reform for unclear reasons.
The Rules Committee is yet to schedule meetings for the DOD or Agriculture bills, but they will most likely be held shortly after the lawmakers return on September 12 from their August recess.
Gaetz cosponsored an amendment to the House MilCon/VA spending bill that would prevent VA from enforcing its policy prohibiting doctors from issuing recommendations for medical cannabis to veterans in states where it’s legal. The Senate Appropriations Committee has adopted a measure similar to the version of its spending bill. This increases the chances of reforms making it to the final package that will be signed into law.
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The House Appropriations Committee’s report, which was attached to the spending bill, also contains a section that states that “VA clarified that VA statutes and regulations do not specifically prohibit a veteran who earns income from state-legalized marijuana activities from receiving a certificate of VA eligibility for home loan benefits.”
Last month, senators passed a defense bill that included provisions prohibiting intelligence agencies such as the CIA and NSA to deny security clearances solely based on past marijuana usage. Other cannabis proposals such as that of Sen. Brian Schatz, D-HI, to allow medical marijuana use by vets , did not make it into the National Defense Authorization Act.
Last month, the Rules Committee blocked more than a dozen amendments related to marijuana and psychedelics in the House version of NDAA. This includes a measure that was introduced by Garcia which would have prevented denial of security clearances to federal workers due to prior cannabis use.
House and Senate Appropriators have approved large-scale spending bills, which include once again language to protect medical cannabis programs in states, as well a controversial riders to prevent Washington, D.C. implementing a regulated marijuana sale system.
Martin Alonso is the photographer of this photo.
The article Defense Department would be prohibited from testing military recruits for marijuana under GOP Congressman’s Amendment first appeared on Marijuana moment.
