Employers across America are facing two, often irreconcilable, problems: the need to stay competitive in recruiting top talent while also managing the ballooning costs of doing business.
Rising Healthcare Benefit Costs
One of those costs, employee healthcare benefits, has risen significantly faster than already high inflation. According to a recent survey of nearly 100 health insurers and health plan administrators by benefits consulting firm Buck, medical costs for employer-sponsored plans are rising between 6.8% and 7.3% in 2024 – up from between 6.2% to 6.8% last year.
psychedelics
That’s caused some employers to get creative by offering unique employee benefits – like psychedelics – to attract talent that also hopefully reduces their own bottom-line costs.
The Wall Street Journal reported this spring on one such employer, Plexis Healthcare Systems, “which recently started covering psychedelic-assisted therapy for its employees through Enthea, a benefits startup that contracts with providers to get discounted rates.” The drugs have gained a cult following amid some medical evidence suggesting therapeutic benefits for treatment-resistant depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); however, they remain federally illegal due to their risks of abuse and complications.
Tech Sector Trends
It is only a matter of time before other employers follow suit, spurred on by various state legalization efforts. One likely candidate industry is the tech sector, which gravitates toward perceptions of “cutting edge” solutions.
Yet it is that same tech sector that feeds many engineering, computer, and science-types into national security careers, teeing up potential security clearance ramifications for employees who partake in employer-sponsored psychedelics.
The situation is not unlike the historical tension between federal and state laws on marijuana. During my decade in law practice representing security clearance applicants, I saw plenty of workers transition out of the tech sector and into the national security sector only to discover that the casual marijuana use that was tolerated (or even part of the culture) at their old employer was now a career-killer. Some of these folks successfully recalibrated, but others chafed at the idea that they couldn’t be trustworthy and reliable national security workers who happened to use an illegal Schedule 1 controlled substance in their free time.
Marijuana Argument
Increasing the likelihood of problems with psychedelics is the imprimatur of legitimacy that comes with employer sponsorship. As more employers follow suit, I can image a good number of security clearance applicants claiming ignorance about the federal illegality of their prior psychedelic use and arguing that they didn’t look past employer approval and/or state law.
The problem, however, is the unfavorable legal precedent set by similar arguments made by countless applicants on the issue of state-legalized marijuana. Those claims have been dismissed by most federal agencies as lacking merit. And as I’ve cautioned previously, the legal argument is only half the battle: security concerns would likely remain over the impact of mind-altering substances on the applicant’s reliability, judgment, and willingness/ability to protect classified information.
That makes employer-sponsored psychedelics the employee benefit from hell for anyone contemplating a subsequent transition into the national security sector.
This article is intended as general information only and should not be construed as legal advice. Although the information is believed to be accurate as of the publication date, no guarantee or warranty is offered or implied. Laws and government policies are subject to change, and the information provided herein may not provide a complete or current analysis of the topic or other pertinent considerations. Consult an attorney regarding your specific situation.
