Matt Gaetz proposes eliminating cannabis testing for military personnel

A proposed amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act by Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz would eliminate cannabis testing for military personnel, Politico reports.

The change, if passed into the National Defense Authorization Act, would further relax military cannabis testing rules. As marijuana legalization sweeps the country, more recruits are seeking the benefits of cannabis, whether for recreational use, medicinal benefits, or both, particularly in legal states. According to the New York Times, nearly 33% more recruits tested positive in 2022 than in 2020. At the time of writing, medical marijuana is legal in 38 states and Washington, DC, and adult-use cannabis is legal in 22 states and DC

Recently, the Senate Budget Committee approved a budget that includes an amendment that would allow Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) physicians to recommend medicinal cannabis to their patients in legal states. It will come into effect as part of the approved legislation funding the VA for fiscal year 2024. The amendment, backed by Senator Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, passed a ballot in June. It will produce the same results as a standalone bill resubmitted in the House of Representatives with bipartisan support from Representative Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat from Oregon, and Republican Representative Brian Mast from Florida, who lost both legs while serving in the army in Afghanistan want. Blumenauer and Mast are the co-chairs of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus.

Gaetz’s proposed amendment follows other changes regarding the federal government’s stance on cannabis use. In May, reports showed that over the past five years the military has given 3,400 recruits who failed a drug test on day one a “grace period to try again.” The Army renounced more than 3,300 recruits between 2018 and 2022 who failed a drug test or admitted to having used drugs in the past. Historically, the army is considered the most relaxed compared to other branches of the military (although to describe the army as “relaxed” seems like an oxymoron). The Navy has traditionally had a zero-tolerance policy towards anyone who fails their drug test upon entry. Yet even they have recently begun giving recruits another chance to take another drug test after 90 days if they fail the first, as have the Air Force and Marine Corps.

Now is a good time to point out that piss tests are basically just cannabis tests. For example, while both cocaine and heroin are visible in urine three to four days after use, cannabis persists for around 30 days and sometimes even longer. So unless you do the drug test shortly after ingesting anything other than cannabis (although considering that under federal law cocaine is only Schedule II while cannabis is Schedule I), the infamous piss test is only really annoying to stoners, which seems quite contradictory and unfair, although consistent with most conservatives’ regressive stance on marijuana.

However, given recent bipartisan support for cannabis reform, that too could change. Gaetz, a man associated with the far right who once voted to give Donald Trump the Nobel Peace Prize, wants to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency, is a vehement opponent of abortion rights and once expressed his support for Kyle Rittenhouse is an unlikely stoner ally. However, he is a proponent of cannabis in general, and once stated that the federal government had “lied to the American people for a generation” about the medical benefits of marijuana.

Gaetz’s desire to end cannabis testing for military personnel is tied to his desire for America to have a thriving military force. “Our military is facing a recruitment and recruiting crisis unprecedented in American history. I do not believe that prior use of cannabis should bar Americans from conscription into the armed forces. We should applaud them for their commitment to service to our country,” Gaetz said in a statement.