Despite medical cannabis laws in 44 states, cannabis is still illegal under federal law. The federal government regulates drugs through the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) (21 U.S.C. § 811), which does not recognize the difference between medical and recreational use of cannabis. These laws are generally applied only against persons who possess, cultivate, or distribute large quantities of cannabis. Under federal law, cannabis is treated like every other controlled substance, such as cocaine and heroin. The federal government places every controlled substance in a schedule, in principle according to its relative potential for abuse and medicinal value. Under the CSA, cannabis is classified as a Schedule I drug, which means that the federal …show more content…
Part of the complication stems from the fact that Americans’ attitudes toward marijuana have shifted dramatically in recent years. According to a 2015 Gallup Poll, 58 percent of Americans think marijuana use should be legal in the United States, compared to 36 percent in 2005. Eight states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for recreational use, and another 21 states have legalized medical marijuana. Today’s police officer candidates are entering the workforce at a time when marijuana use is becoming increasingly normalized, even legalized, in the United States. Given this changing landscape, some police agencies are confronting the issue of how to address past marijuana use among their officer candidates. The Drug Enforcement Administration continues to classify marijuana as a Schedule I drug, and most agencies strictly prohibit its use by current officers and officer candidates. The challenge for police agencies is how to effectively screen out candidates whose performance would be impacted by past drug use, without pushing out otherwise strong candidates who may have used marijuana recreationally in the past but whose performance would not be affected. Traditionally, police agencies have addressed this issue by establishing numeric thresholds on past marijuana use …show more content…
One of the initial issues that Colorado law enforcement faced was simply accepting the legalization of marijuana. Colorado Chief of police of the Greenwood Village Police Department shared that he was in denial about the passage of Amendment 64 and he felt blindsided, because law enforcement was told the law wouldn’t pass. The Attorney General office and other state leaders did not know what to do or how police should respond. Other states need to act quicker and be more decisive from the start. Take the time and spend the money to train officers ahead of time. Be sure to have data collection systems in place to quantify the impacts of legalization (Stelter, 2015). For all the aspiring and current spies, diplomats and F.B.I. agents living in states that have liberalized marijuana laws, the federal government has a stern warning: Put down the bong, throw out the vaporizer and lose the rolling papers. Consequently, members of a new generation are getting an early lesson in what their predecessors have done for as long as there have been espionage, diplomacy and bureaucracy. They are lying and stalling when necessary to avoid, in the case of the newcomers, failing a drug test. It usually takes about two weeks for evidence of marijuana use to disappear from urine; a urine sample is the method by which drug use ordinarily is tested. takes about two weeks for evidence of