What Impact Does Medical Marijuana Have on Your Security Clearance?

Maryland is home to many medical marijuana users and dispensaries, but what will the implications of medical marijuana use be when these individuals need to apply for a security clearance.

Health benefits abound when it comes to medical marijuana use. From pain alleviation to helping sufferers of epilepsy, fibromyalgia and Crohn’s disease, this has been sufficiently proven.

Unfortunately, these benefits do prevent your security status from being effected. If you are concerned about how your prescribed medical marijuana use may affect your security clearance application, then keep reading.

Being an illicit drug, there are certain issues that arise from marijuana use. Individuals who are seeking a cleared security status should be aware that it is prohibited. This prohibited nature does not change just because an individual is legally using the substance.

On top of the legality of your medical marijuana being irrelevant, this medical marijuana ban is even more extensive. CBD oil is another item that the ban extends to, despite its lack of THC’s psychoactive properties. At the federal level, CBD is still simply considered a marijuana derivative. Therefore, the DEA treats it the same way when evaluating someone’s security status.

There are some key differences, however, when comparing the federal and state law on this issue. During the security clearance application process, marijuana’s legality, whether recreational or medical, is still evaluated on a federal level and not on a state level. On a federal level, it is clearly illegal.

It remains to be seen what the relationship between security clearance and medical marijuana will be in the future. Currently, though, its Schedule 1 drug classification still stands, and the DEA deems marijuana as having a “high potential for abuse.”

Medical marijuana research is continuing, and the federal government’s treatment of its usage in evaluating an individual’s security status is something that many citizens hope to see change in the coming years. This potential change does not seem to be coming any time soon, however. Therefore, medical marijuana users and dispensaries like AmediCanna, for the time being, will still have to deal with these complications regarding their security status.

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