London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Sep 01, 2025

Five Staffers Fired Over Past Weed Use After The WH Had Said They'd Be More Chill

Five Staffers Fired Over Past Weed Use After The WH Had Said They'd Be More Chill

“Just look at the fact that three of the five last presidents have admitted to past cannabis use,” said one marijuana advocate, “including Biden’s former boss.”

Five White House staffers have been fired a result of prior marijuana use, weeks after the Biden administration said it would loosen these policies in an effort to modernize and expand the pool of people who can work there.

Officials pushed back on Friday on a report from the Daily Beast that “dozens” of staffers had lost their jobs or been forced to work remotely due to their past weed use, saying the number was actually about a dozen. The officials added that there were additional security issues for some of the fired staffers, such as hard drug use.

“Of the hundreds of people hired, only five people who had started working at the White House are no longer employed as a result of this policy,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted on Friday.

The roles and identities of those let go were not made public.


The White House has not published any official guidance on the new policy, but in an NBC article from last month, an official said that past marijuana use would not automatically disqualify staffers.

Normally, White House staffers must receive top secret security clearance, for which drug use can be disqualifying.

To get around this, staffers who have used marijuana only on a “limited” basis and whose jobs don’t require this security clearance would be given a waiver to work without the clearance.

The policy does not actually allow staffers to use marijuana or even to have previously used it more than once or twice a year. According to the Associated Press, “limited” use of marijuana means fewer than 15 times in the past year.

Staffers with clearance waivers face additional rules and scrutiny, officials said. They must take a pledge to stop using marijuana completely while working for the government, agree to random drug testing, and may be directed to work from home until they meet clearance standards.

Though the Biden administration has been more permissive than previous presidential administrations, the terminations have faced widespread criticism, particularly because marijuana has been legal in DC for over five years. It remains illegal at the federal level.

Many local and national advocates for legalization are denouncing the White House’s actions.

Adam Eidinger, cofounder of DC Marijuana Justice, told BuzzFeed News he found the firings “outrageous,” saying there’s no evidence that staffers using marijuana in their free time would affect how they perform in their jobs.

“You should only be looking at someone’s job performance to determine whether they are qualified to work in a place — not whether they used marijuana in the past or are currently using it,” he said.

Disciplining employees because they’ve used marijuana outside of working hours is a harmful and hypocritical precedent to reinforce, particularly from the nation’s highest office, National Cannabis Industry Association spokesperson Morgan Fox told BuzzFeed News.

“It’s definitely sending the wrong message, not just to federal employers, but to policy makers and private sector employers around the country,” Fox said. “It kind of reinforces the false notion that cannabis is a detractor from somebody’s ability to do difficult jobs with a lot of responsibility.”

“Just look at the fact that three of the five last presidents have admitted to past cannabis use,” Fox said, “including Biden’s former boss.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Chinese and Indian Leaders Pursue Amity Amid Global Shifts
European Union Plans for Ukraine Deployment
ECB Warns Against Inflation Complacency
Concerns Over North Cyprus Casino Development
Shipping Companies Look Beyond Chinese Finance
Rural Exodus Fueling European Wildfires
China Hosts Major Security Meeting
Chinese Police Successfully Recover Family's Savings from Livestream Purchases
Germany Marks a Decade Since Migrant Wave with Divisions, Success Stories, and Political Shifts
Liverpool Defeat Arsenal 1–0 with Szoboszlai Free-Kick to Stay Top of Premier League
Prince Harry and King Charles to Meet in First Reunion After 20 Months
Chinese Stock Market Rally Fueled by Domestic Investors
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
Ukrainian Nationalist Politician Andriy Parubiy Assassinated in Lviv
Corporate America Cuts Middle Management as Bosses Take On Triple the Workload
Parents Sue OpenAI After Teen’s Death, Alleging ChatGPT Encouraged Suicide
Amazon Faces Lawsuit Over 'Buy' Label on Digital Streaming Content
Federal Reserve Independence Questioned Amid Trump’s Push to Reshape Central Bank
British Politics Faces Tumultuous Autumn After Summer of Rebellions and Rising Farage Momentum
US Appeals Court Rules Against Most Trump-Era Tariffs
UK Sought Broad Access to Apple Users’ Data, Court Filing Reveals
UK Bank Shares Dive Over Potential Tax on Sector
Germany’s Auto Industry Sheds 51,500 Jobs in First Half of 2025 Amid Deepening Crisis
Bruce Willis Relocated Due to Advanced Dementia
French and Korean Nuclear Majors Clash As EU Launches Foreign Subsidy Probe
EU Stands Firm on Digital Rules as Trump Warns of Retaliation
Getting Ready for the 3rd Time in Its History, Germany Approves Voluntary Military Service for Teenagers
Argentine President Javier Milei Evacuated After Stones Thrown During Campaign Event
Denmark Confronts U.S. Diplomat Over Covert Trump-Linked Influence in Greenland
Starmer Should Back Away from ECHR, Says Jack Straw
Trump Demands RICO Charges Against George Soros and Son for Funding Violent Protests
Taylor Swift Announces Engagement to NFL Star Travis Kelce
France May Need IMF Bailout, Warns Finance Minister
Chinese AI Chipmaker Cambricon Posts Record Profit as Beijing Pushes Pivot from Nvidia
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
Ukraine Finally Allows Young Men Aged Eighteen to Twenty-Two to Leave the Country
The Porn Remains, Privacy Disappears: How Britain Broke the Internet in Ten Days
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Welcome to The Definition of Insanity: Germany Edition
Just a reminder, this is Michael Jackson's daughter, Paris.
Spotify’s Strange Move: The Feature Nobody Asked For – Returns
Manhunt in Australia: Armed Anti-Government Suspect Kills Police Officers Sent to Arrest Him
China Launches World’s Most Powerful Neutrino Detector
How Beijing-Linked Networks Shape Elections in New York City
Ukrainian Refugee Iryna Zarutska Fled War To US, Stabbed To Death
Elon Musk Sues Apple and OpenAI Over Alleged App Store Monopoly
2 Australian Police Shot Dead In Encounter In Rural Victoria State
Vietnam Evacuates Hundreds of Thousands as Typhoon Kajiki Strikes; China’s Sanya Shuts Down
UK Government Delays Decision on China’s Proposed London Embassy Amid Concerns Over Redacted Plans
A 150-Year Tradition to Be Abolished? Uproar Over the Popular Central Park Attraction
×