{"id":13592,"date":"2021-03-12T18:46:15","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T18:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2021\/03\/12\/marijuana-legalization-hasnt-harmed-armys-recruit-outcomes-study-says\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T01:42:58","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:42:58","slug":"marijuana-legalization-hasnt-harmed-armys-recruit-outcomes-study-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/your-army\/2021\/03\/12\/marijuana-legalization-hasnt-harmed-armys-recruit-outcomes-study-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Marijuana legalization hasn\u2019t harmed Army\u2019s recruit outcomes, study says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Marijuana legalization is sweeping across the country<\/a>, but there\u2019s no strong evidence that soldiers joining from states with relaxed cannabis laws have worse enlistment outcomes, according to a new study<\/a> by the Rand Corp.\u2019s federally funded Arroyo Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study looked at regular Army enlistments from 2001 to 2012, and compared those contracts with personnel records through 2018 to track the career outcomes of each recruit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rand researchers found some evidence that the legalization of medical marijuana is associated with improvements in recruit outcomes, meaning soldiers from these states are less likely to fail to complete their first term, be demoted, be separated for entry-level performance or be separated for failing a medical or physical standard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those datasets are far from complete, researchers cautioned, since many states have only started to change the way they police marijuana in the past few years. But that could be changing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than half of 2018\u2032s enlistment contracts came from states where marijuana is legal for medicinal use, up from just 15 percent in 2001. Almost 19 percent of 2018 contracts came from states where marijuana is legalized for recreational use, and that number is growing, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data from the 2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health shows that almost 40 percent of 18-year-olds have used marijuana in their lifetime, and almost 20 percent of 18-year-olds used marijuana in the past month. But the percentage of regular Army accessions with a documented history of marijuana use never rose above 2.5 percent between 2001 and 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A \u201cdocumented history of marijuana\u201d includes all encounters with the drug, including self-admitted use during the enlistment process or an arrest and conviction for using or selling it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study also looked at the Army\u2019s waiver policy, not just in regards to drug use, but also in light of the increased prevalence of ADHD, anxiety disorders and depression among young people. Army officials wanted to know whether increasing the number of waivers granted to recruits had an impact on the overall performance of their accessions cohort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWaivered recruits are less likely to attrite during [the Delayed Entry Program] or during the first term [of enlistment] and are as likely to reenlist or transition to a commissioned officer compared with similar recruits without waivers,\u201d the study reads. \u201cThe exception is recruits with drug\/alcohol waivers, who we find have a higher likelihood of first-term attrition. We find similar results for recruits with a documented history of marijuana, ADHD or depression\/anxiety.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t