The Air Force is granting more than three times as many enlistment waivers to recruits who test positive for marijuana than it anticipated when it first launched an effort to give people who have consumed cannabis another shot to join the service.
The military branch announced a policy change last year, authorizing it to grant waivers to recruits who test positive for THC metabolites during their initial drug screening and giving them 90 days before they’re retested. Previously, Air Force candidates who tested positive would be automatically barred from joining.
In the first year since the waivers became available, the branch said it issued 165, Military.com first reported. That’s more than triple the 50 waivers it predicted it would grant annually. The policy covers both the Air Force and the Space Force.
Within just three months, from September 30 to December 31 of last year, it had already granted the second chance to 43 applicants.
The Air Force missed its recruitment goal for the first time since 1999, and Gen. Christopher Amrhein, the branch’s recruitment service commander, said last month that the situation could have been much worse if they hadn’t instituted the marijuana waiver policy.
“Let’s make no mistake, drug
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