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Senate votes to let people who’ve used marijuana work at intelligence agencies

marijuanamoment.net

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Re: Senate votes to let people who’ve used marijuana work at intelligence agencies

#121

Post by alistairSH »

euroderf wrote: post #32

Marijuana use was mostly OK until Reagan came in. Then DISCO announced a policy change.

Pre-Reagan.

“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and Black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or Black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and Blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”

-- John Ehrlichman, Nixon's domestic policy advisor, from an interview in 1994

Re: Senate votes to let people who’ve used marijuana work at intelligence agencies

#122

Post by progrus »

Gibbon1 wrote: post #78
motohagiography wrote: post #28

Let me be the first to welcome people with more diverse substance abuse problems to our beloved secret police. My greatest regret is that I can only declare a mere hour of applause for their great personal sacrifices and worthily earned pensions. Tbh, I kind of liked the idea that decriminalization and liberal attitudes were starving them for talent.

[flagged]

Pure poetry. You are so right.

Re: Senate votes to let people who’ve used marijuana work at intelligence agencies

#123

Post by sdsd »

bozhark wrote: post #108
elmomle wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They go on missions, very frequently outside of America, as a standard part of their early adult life. Learning the local language is pretty much a requirement.

It’s not spreading though.

I live in a small town in Guatemala and the mormon church here is growing very rapidly. According to Google, they're growing at 1.5% annually, which means 255,036 new Mormons every year. However, a church with even a hundred people can heavily sway a small, remote community.

I agree it's not "spreading" per se, but their numbers are respectable among proselytizing religions today. When Islam reached a 1.8% growth rate in the 2000s we were inundated with proclamations that it was the fastest growing religion in the world (eg: https://foreignpolicy.com/2007/05/14/the-list-the-worlds-fas...).

Re: Senate votes to let people who’ve used marijuana work at intelligence agencies

#124

Post by myself248 »

RajT88 wrote: post #96
meroes wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried finding it but I listened to someone on KQED/NPR who worked for Obama's White House and had to go through a security clearance. She said she used marijuana hundreds of times, and they let her get the job. Something doesn't add up. Or, for your friend's specific job they had different rules. She wasn't an intern or something very low level, but I can't remember her title. Edit: Deputy Chief of Staff for Operat…

Clearance is a funny business. They want to weed out things which can be used as leverage against people with clearance. So - financial stuff is their number 1 clearance issue I've heard. If you're deep in debt, or otherwise demonstrate poor control over your financial life. Next up is being part of the LGBT community - if you're in the closet. I've heard they don't care about people being gay per se, just the secret…

A friend of mine says that his coming-out moment happened while undergoing a polygraph to work at the CIA. Basically "you're still hiding something, what is it?", and that was it. He admitted it to the polygrapher at the same time he admitted it to himself.

He didn't get the job, not sure if that was why.

Re: Senate votes to let people who’ve used marijuana work at intelligence agencies

#125

Post by ttfergfrdT55rrd »

antisyzygy wrote: post #113
idjrgisjet wrote: post #88

I remember when I was in the Navy, running a nuclear power plant on a ship that carried nuclear weapons, and the Chief of the Boat regularly showed up to work so drunk he couldn't speak (having driven himself to work) and everyone ignored it and when juniors complained seniors threatened to fabricate charges against them to shut them up, and listening to that guy scream and yell about how anyone who smokes cannabis i…

I can tell you right now if any job required a drug test, I wouldn't work there. I use cannabis sometimes but it's more the principal of it. It's a privacy violation and positive results don't actually mean you're intoxicated on the job. What people do in their free time is nobodies business so long as it's not harming other people.

[flagged]

Re: Senate votes to let people who’ve used marijuana work at intelligence agencies

#126

Post by bobthepanda »

bozhark wrote: post #108
elmomle wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They go on missions, very frequently outside of America, as a standard part of their early adult life. Learning the local language is pretty much a requirement.

It’s not spreading though.

In some places it is more effective than others; Mormons are very present in the Pacific islands, for example.

Re: Senate votes to let people who’ve used marijuana work at intelligence agencies

#127

Post by lcnPylGDnU4H9OF »

bwb wrote: post #99
Gibbon1 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I would like to nominate this comment for the best of 2023. This was hilarious and also how I felt :)

Not that I disagree but I'm definitely less hopeful. Maybe after a decade or two and a pot smoker has managed to make it to a decision-making role but I'm not holding my breath (pun definitely intended).

Re: Senate votes to let people who’ve used marijuana work at intelligence agencies

#128

Post by pests »

astrange wrote: post #85
motohagiography wrote: post #28

Let me be the first to welcome people with more diverse substance abuse problems to our beloved secret police. My greatest regret is that I can only declare a mere hour of applause for their great personal sacrifices and worthily earned pensions. Tbh, I kind of liked the idea that decriminalization and liberal attitudes were starving them for talent.

Spying prevents war. It's easier to get into a war if you don't really understand each other. Not to mention if you don't know who has missiles pointed at you.

I don't think spying is the only thing these agencies do. Try asking Guatamala, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, the list just goes on.

Re: Senate votes to let people who’ve used marijuana work at intelligence agencies

#129

Post by vuln »

ttfergfrdT55rrd wrote: post #125
antisyzygy wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can tell you right now if any job required a drug test, I wouldn't work there. I use cannabis sometimes but it's more the principal of it. It's a privacy violation and positive results don't actually mean you're intoxicated on the job. What people do in their free time is nobodies business so long as it's not harming other people.

[flagged]

I have not seen a single social program, safety net or entitlement that requires a urinalysis to obtain.

Re: Senate votes to let people who’ve used marijuana work at intelligence agencies

#130

Post by tycho-newman »

solardev wrote: post #106
astrange wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spying prevents war. It's easier to get into a war if you don't really understand each other. Not to mention if you don't know who has missiles pointed at you.

Like Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine...

If the Russians listened to American intelligence, or hell, their own intelligence instead of wishful thinking, they wouldn't be the second-best army in Ukraine right now.

The director of the CIA went to Moscow and tried to get the Russians to see sense. Ah well. I guess having intelligence is not the same as acting intelligently.

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