Young marijuana smokers of the world, rejoice. The Army’s need to fill its expanding ranks means that your pot habit is not an automatic disqualifier for service. I’m an old retired soldier, but I think I have adjusted fairly well to changes in the force since my commissioning 29 years ago. In that time, we’ve gone from discharging gays, to “don’t ask, don’t tell,” to “we don’t care who you sleep with as long as they’re not married to someone else.” We’ve opened up the infantry and the armor to women, and we’re graduating women from Ranger school. Those moves have all proven to be good for the health of the force.
The nation’s attitude towards marijuana is rapidly liberalizing. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, either. But something about enlistment waivers for drug users, no matter how “popular” the drug has become, just doesn’t sit right.
One-Third of the waivers
Associated Press Pentagon correspondent Lolita Baldor (a reporter with whom I have in the past enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship) obtained enlistment waiver data for all four services from the Department of Defense. The Army in particular is in a tough spot.
To restate what I’ve brought up here in the past, most recently when discussing MAVNI, the program to recruit non-citizens with critical skills, the pool of available recruits is a small portion of the population. Of Americans between the ages of 17 and 24—the prime recruiting pool—fully 71 percent are ineligible for military service. The reasons are varied: not being a high school graduate, being overweight, having health issues, having a criminal record… or habitual drug use.
But we’ve made the decision as a military (probably as a nation, when you think about it) to ditch the draft and maintain an all-volunteer force. Most of my military colleagues agree with me that this is for the best. I would much rather go to war with soldiers who volunteered than those who were forced to be there. “Got a letter in the mail,” the old marching cadence goes. “Go to war or go to jail.”
Thanks to Congress, the Army is growing. The authorized active duty “end strength,” the maximum number of soldiers permitted to be in the Regular Army, was 476,000 in Fiscal Year 2017. By October of this year it will grow to 483,500. The FY 2019 NDAA that passed the Senate on Wednesday by a vote of 87-10 further increases that figure to 485,741 (the oddest troop strength number I’ve ever seen included in an NDAA).
Given the need for new soldiers, a certain amount of flexibility is to be expected. But the numbers Baldor uncovered are worrisome. While she doesn’t reveal how many wavers the Army has granted overall, but whatever that number is, between October of last year and April of this year, the recruitment waivers the Army issued for drug use “exceeded 30 percent.”
So here’s what bugs me about this: not all soldiers require security clearances, but drug use that requires a waiver to enlist would almost certainly be enough to disqualify that person from obtaining a clearance. Marijuana may be legal in Colorado, and at least “decriminalized” in many other states, but as far as the federal government is concerned, it’s still a major no-no.
By allowing those with documented drug use to join, we are effectively limiting their potential. Those soldiers who are able to make the Army a career ultimately must obtain and hold a clearance. Maybe, with the passage of time, these young people would also be found to be suitable to hold one. But I’m not sure I’d bet on it.
Either way, it’s a sad commentary on the state of America’s youth. Forget sending stupid tweets; there are many more things that will ruin your career before it begins, and drugs—even weed—are near the top of that list.
