

FBI ‘Grappling’ With Hiring Policy Concerning Marijuana - cpeterso
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2014/05/20/director-comey-fbi-grappling-with-hiring-policy-concerning-marijuana/

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TillE
A lot of things haven't really changed, some things have gotten worse, but
it's been quite amazing to see the relatively rapid movement in the US on
marijuana and gay rights in the past few years. I'm not quite sure how it
happened.

I used to idly browse pollingreport.com a lot, looking for issues where a
majority of American opinion didn't line up with the general political
climate. Environmental issues are perhaps another area where we could see a
major shift in the near future.

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thenmar
I don't have a lot of hope for environmental issues. Cable news has managed to
turn climate change into a debate where everyone's opinion matters. You even
see people who should really know better, on sites like hackernews, saying
things like, "there's no scientific consensus" and "we think global warming is
happening, but we don't really have an idea of how much of it is the fault of
humans".

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theboss
I mean...there are plenty of really good people who don't smoke marijuana too,
and they do an exceptional job recruiting them from schools in the DMV area.

At the University I went to, anyone who expressed interest in security and had
good grades could get a ridiculously generous scholarship (tuition + $20k
stipend + books + $1000 for conferences, and a guaranteed summer internship).
A catch to this is you must be able to get a clearance, and if your clearance
is denied you lose the scholarship and have to pay back the money.

Basically, all the students who were not into that kind of stuff went straight
for it and had jobs at 3 letter agencies on graduation.

Yeah a lot of security people like marijuana but a lot of them don't.

The way I looked at it was "If I'm going to choose to smoke marijuana I have
to be twice as good as everyone else in order to ensure I get a job that does
not require a security clearance" (which is odd because I later chose not to
smoke marijuana).

But...there are plenty out there who already have no problem getting jobs at
these agencies after being clean for 1year or just not being interested in
those things.

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bradleysmith
I would like to say that this is a remarkable change in rhetoric from an
organization that has been lousy with dogmatic principles since its founding.

yes, there are non-marijuana users that are fit for those jobs. yes, the fbi
could pay better to attract talent.

this is a fed agency (the fed agency) saying they are thinking about letting
crazy wingnut pot smokers help them defend america.

this is a meaninful change in organizational behavior that is worthy of note.

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dsr_
The FBI has a much bigger problem: their pay scales are crap. A non-field
agent tops out at the end of his or her career as GS14, $110K. You won't get
hired into that, of course.

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ScottWhigham
Is that anything new though? I don't know the historical pay rates for FBI
jobs but I wouldn't assume that they've undergone significant budget cuts.

