The Secret Service is shifting its drug policy for potential new hires, according to CNN.
The policy change involves a "whole-person concept" to hiring where the Secret Service will no longer automatically disqualify a job candidate who has used marijuana a certain number of times.
The new policy will allow a candidate who admits to having used marijuana, and take into account how long it has been between the candidate's last use and when the application to join the Secret Service was made, CNN reports.
Officials said the policy change is in reaction to the increasing prevalence of marijuana, so that younger applicants would get access to Secret Service jobs, even if they experimented with the drug when they were teens.
The change puts the Secret Service in line with other federal law enforcement agencies. A polygraph test remains a vital part of the process, as well as credit checks and vision tests, CNN notes.
"We need more people. The mission has changed. It's more dynamic and way more dangerous than it has been in years past," new Secret Service director Randolph Alles said at a media briefing Thursday, according to CNN.
"I'm impressed by the people we've got, but we need more people, because staffing shortages are affecting morale," Alles said at the briefing, according to UPI.
Alles, a retired Marine Corps major general is the first Secret Service director to come from outside the agency in 70 years, UPI reports.
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