FBI REVISITS POLICY ON DRUG USE

Hiring Rules May Be Relaxed For Years-Old Experiences

The FBI, famous for its strait-laced crime-fighting image, is
considering whether to relax its hiring rules over how often
applicants could have used marijuana or other illegal drugs earlier in life.

Some senior FBI managers have been frustrated that they could not
hire applicants who acknowledged occasional marijuana use in college
but who in some cases already perform top-secret work at other
government agencies, such as the CIA or the State Department.

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III will make the final decision. "We
can't say when or if this is going to happen, but we are exploring
the possibility," spokesman Stephen Kodak said.

The change would ease limits about how often -- and how many years
ago -- applicants for jobs such as intelligence analysts, linguists,
computer specialists, accountants and others had used illegal drugs.

Current rules prohibit the FBI from hiring anyone who used marijuana
in the past three years or more than 15 times ever. They also ban
anyone who used other illegal drugs, such as cocaine or heroin, in
the past 10 years or more than five times.

The rules, however, would not be relaxed for FBI special agents, the
fabled "G-men" who conduct most criminal and terrorism
investigations. The new plan would continue to ban current drug use.

The nation's former anti-drug director said he understands the FBI's
dilemma. "The integrity of the FBI is a known national treasure that
must be protected," said retired Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, who ran the
White House Office of National Drug Control Policy during the Clinton
administration. "But there should be no hard and fast rule that
suggests you can't ever have used drugs. As long as it's clear that's
behind you and you're overwhelmingly likely to remain drug-free, you
should be eligible."

The new FBI proposal would judge applicants based on their "whole
person" rather than limiting drug-related experiences to an arbitrary
number. It would consider the circumstances of an applicant's
previous drug use, such as the person's age, and the likelihood of
future use. The relaxed standard already is in use at most other U.S.
intelligence agencies.

The FBI proposal contrasts with the agency's starched image and its
drug-fighting history. A generation of video game players can
remember seeing the FBI seal and the slogan "Winners don't use
drugs," attributed to then-FBI Director William S. Sessions, on
popular arcade games from the late 1980s.

Private companies have wrestled with the same problem. Employers
complain that they can't afford to turn away applicants because of
marijuana use that ended years earlier, said Robert Drusendahl, owner
of Pre-Check Co. in Cleveland, which performs background employment
checks for private companies. "The point is, they can't fill those
spots," he said. "This is a microcosm of what's happening outside in
the rest of the world."

A recently retired FBI polygraph examiner, Harold L. Byford of El
Paso, was quoted in a federal lawsuit in February 2002 arguing that
"if someone has smoked marijuana 15 times, he's done it 50 times. . .
. If I was running the show there would be no one in the FBI that
ever used illegal drugs!"

The proposed FBI change also reflects cultural and generational
shifts in attitudes toward marijuana and other drugs, even as the
Bush administration has sought to prove links between terrorists and narcotics.

Marijuana remains the most commonly used illegal drug in the United
States, with about half of teenagers trying the drug before they
graduate from high school.

"What people did when they were 18 or 21, I think that is pretty
irrelevant," said Richard A. Clarke, a former top White House
counterterrorism adviser. "We have to recognize there are a couple of
generations now who regarded marijuana use, while it's technically
illegal, as nothing more serious than jaywalking."

Even the Drug Enforcement Administration, which will not hire
applicants as agents who used illegal drugs, makes exceptions for
admitting "limited youthful and experimental use of marijuana."

"Recreational marijuana use is a fact of life nowadays," said Mark
Zaid, a Washington lawyer who has represented people rejected for FBI
jobs over drugs. "It doesn't stop Supreme Court justices from getting
on the bench and doesn't stop presidents from getting elected, so why
should it stop someone from getting hired by the FBI?"