US Army Announces Plan to Admit Recruits Who Smoked Marijuana
My personal opinion on this is that I would rather have a smaller group of highly qualified soldiers than a larger group of soldiers with standards dropped. However, the Army is saying they are only allowing in soldiers who have admitted to marijuana use which is on the lower end of criminal activity:
Faced with increasing demand for new soldiers, the Army has reached deeper into the pool of marginally qualified recruits, offered hundreds of millions in bonuses and relaxed the process for granting waivers for marijuana use.
The Army will reach its goal of 80,000 new soldiers without compromising quality, predicted Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Snow, who leads its recruiting command. The need for new soldiers comes as Congress has reversed trends begun in the Obama administration to downsize the military. An additional headwind for recruiting in all the service branches: a growing economy where civilian jobs, not joining the military, attract young people.
“It’s in an environment where unemployment is 4.5%,” Snow said. “We’ve got our work cut out for us.” [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but I wonder if this will mean weight and fitness standards for soldiers coming out of basic and AIT will be lowered as well like there were before?
Who gives a crap if you smoked the leafy green these days?
I came in on a ganja waiver, served 20, and was a “passable” sailor.
Just legalize already. “They” said legalizing the herb would turn Colorado into a Mad Max Wastelands. Not really. My property value shot up, crime went down, and the state made so much revenue they had to issue a refund.
Reefer Madness was propaganda.
With more and more states legalizing it, young people in those states will never consider it as a “criminal activity.” They will experiment with it just as they would with cigarettes. All of the services will soon have to come to the reality that unless the want to waive off entire states, they will have to accept recruits who admit to having used it but understand that it is prohibited for as long as they serve.
“this will mean weight and fitness standards for soldiers coming out of basic and AIT will be lowered as well like there were before”
Always going back to that eh? How were they lowered before? Unless you mean “not enforced”…
Then again, maybe they want the Army to hire people more likely to kill people and break things than plant trees and flowers and knit lace doilies?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4950206/Smoking-cannabis-DOES-make-people-violent.html
I find it hard to take The Daily Mail seriously. They’re pretty much on par with the now defunct Weekly World News…
Standards have not been adhered to for several years now. The weight control regulations were ignored during the active war years, kids having violent police records were given waivers to enlist, the so called up or out policy was not enforce to the extent that it was designed for, Generals would pay lip service to the strict interpretations of the regs, usually to their benefit. An example of closing a blind eye to standards is Camp Humphrey’s new construction. The fact that they are accepting usually unacceptable buildings just to meet a timeline that has a history of being pushed back is criminal to my way of thinking. People were not held accountable and we end up with a mess. I hope that none of the minor flaws in the buildings we are accepting have to do with electricity or plumbing. But, I guarantee you the colonels and their families will be sleeping well.