FBI DILEMMA ILLUSTRATES HYPOCRITICAL DRUG POLICIES

There's some great news for former potheads: you might have a chance
to work for the FBI.

In yet another example of the U.S. government's bipolar stance on
drugs, the FBI is considering relaxing hiring regulations on former drug users.

The CIA, State Department and other government agencies already have
less stringent drug policies than the FBI, and the FBI wants to level
the playing field.

So here it is: if you smoked dope or even crack in college, and
presumably didn't get caught, and now have stopped using illegal
drugs, the FBI might give you a shot at intelligence work. The change
would not apply to special agents or "G-men," who would still be
subject to stricter rules.

Even the FBI's current rules are a little puzzling. If it has been
more than three years since you smoked marijuana and you never smoked
more than 15 times, you're OK. Likewise if 10 years have passed since
you used cocaine, heroin or other illegal drugs, and you only used
five times, you're FBI material.

Is there a little hypocrisy here? How can we say it's OK to smoke
when you're young and foolish, so now you can help us bust other
people's kids (often poor and black) or maybe nab some of those nasty
dealers (often foreign)?

If drug use is considered a rite of passage for upwardly mobile
college students, why are any young people jailed for drug use? Why
aren't they given the same pass, and judged merely young and foolish?

Here's what the nation's former drug czar has to say about the FBI's
quandary: "... there should be no hard and fast rule that suggests
you can't ever have used drugs," said retired Gen. Barry R.
McCaffrey. "As long as it's clear that's behind you and you're
overwhelmingly likely to remain drug free, you should be eligible."

Wow! Youthful experimentation is now being condoned by the former
head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Can legalization of marijuana be far behind?

Actually, yes. The same government that wants to bend the rules for
national security employees doesn't want people to smoke pot for
medicinal purposes. Even though marijuana has been proven to ease the
pain of glaucoma, that's no excuse to let anyone use the evil weed in old age.

These mixed messages on drug use only show how impossible it is to
wage a successful war on drugs. A nation that displays such
ambivalence about drugs obviously needs to do some real
self-examination about what its priorities are.

An estimated 14.6 million Americans 12 and older were using marijuana
in 2004. Marijuana accounts for the largest portion of positive
workplace drug tests conducted each year.

It's time to have open, honest dialog on marijuana and other drug
use. Surely if future FBI employees can smoke dope, people dying of
cancer should be able to, as well.

Any type of drug use, including alcohol, carries risks. Instead of
just saying no, we need to do a better job educating citizens on
those risks and helping them break addictions.

Locking only certain drug users in the slammer is just wrong.