The DOOBIE Act, authored by Senator Gary Peters of Michigan, has passed a Senate committee with a 9-5 vote and is on its way to the full Senate for consideration.
The act stands for Dismantling Outdated Obstacles and Barriers to Individual Employment (DOOBIE) and is designed to change federal hiring policies regarding past marijuana use.
Currently, federal agencies can deny job applicants or security clearances due to past marijuana use, despite its legalization in 24 states (plus the District of Columbia).
Both the Office of Personnel Management and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence have already issued guidance advising federal agencies to stop disqualifying candidates based on past marijuana use.
Mark Osbeck is a clinical professor of law at the University of Michigan and has authored two books on marijuana law, Cases and Materials on Marijuana Law (West, 2019) and Marijuana Law in a Nutshell (West, 2017).
"The concern now is that this is greatly restricting the applicant pool of qualified applicants because maybe half of people or more have smoked marijuana who are applying for these federal positions..." Osbeck says, "[this] makes it hard for the government to compete with private employers for the same employees."
Overall, the DOOBIE Act is meant to eliminate conflict for purposes of hiring so they will no longer look at past marijuana behavior and marijuana consumption.
This act could unify federal policy and provide greater clarity for applicants navigating the hiring process in federal agencies.
