Biden Seemingly Switches Position On Marijuana Use, Punishes Dozens Of Staffers

After initially signaling a tolerance of past marijuana use among staffers, the Biden administration has begun punishing employees who admit to having used it. Sources inform The Daily Beast they were told by transition officials past use wouldn’t be a problem only to now face remote work, suspensions and resignation requests.

Many young staffers admitted to past use on official forms they filled out as part of the onboarding after hiring managers informally assured them it would be all right. Even those who only used marijuana in states where the drug is legal now face reprisals.

“There were one-on-one calls with individual affected staffers—rather, ex-staffers,” one affected former White House staffer The Daily Beast. “I was asked to resign.”

The move was spearheaded by White House Director of Management and Administration Anne Filipic. Those caught up in it say they were left confused.

“Nothing was ever explained [on the calls],” one said. “The policies were never explained, the threshold for what was excusable and what was inexcusable was never explained.”

The Biden administration has disputed the number of people affected, saying initial tolerance was intended to give people a chance to be hired, not guarantee that it would have no effect on their decisions.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told The Daily Beast that only five people had been fired due to the change.

“While we will not get into individual cases, there were additional factors at play in many instances for the small number of individuals who were terminated,” she said.

Since the information on drug use in the applications is largely honor-based and only checked with some interviews with family members, applicants and staffers from former administrations have said publicly that dishonesty is rampant. Staffers now affected by the change say it unfairly targets applicants that felt safe to disclose their previous use.

“It’s exclusively targeting younger staff and staff who came from states where it was legal,” a former staffer said.