FBI director: Zero tolerance pot policy kills our ability to hire cyber war programmers

Pot is being legalized and our country is starting to turn into a 3rd world country.....hey wait a minute maybe there is a connection. All the smart people in our country are foreigners.

a reply to: tothetenthpower

Lol... this has to be the best thread I've ever seen. I salute you James Comey.

Since when was cyber "warfare" the remit of the FBI?

I thought they they were a law enforcement agency, there to catch criminals, not carry out cyber attacks against others.

a reply to: tothetenthpower

You mistake the argument..

The physical impact of the use isn't what I'm thinking about and if that were the case? I'd say no to all of it. After all, a Cyber warrior can sure do some serious damage in smaller ways if judgement is considered questionable in any general way. See the scandals about lab techs that screwed up countless cases at a shot from plain stone cold sober stupid, for examples there.

The issue I see is that with armed agents. I don't want an admitted and avowed law breaker, at the time he actually takes the oath to uphold the very law he's actively breaking, put into a position of authority with life and death discretion. Honesty and Integrity is a big issue ...before they've even entered training. Already, they determine which laws are 'just' to follow and which....not so much.

If Federal law changes, then yeah, how can they treat it differently than alcohol if the law doesn't distinguish in access, like Colorado or Washington? Intoxicated on duty is still an issue, but that is the same issue whether permitted off duty or not.

originally posted by: LA1IMPALA

Pot is being legalized and our country is starting to turn into a 3rd world country.....hey wait a minute maybe there is a connection.

I'm sure there is a connection in your twisted mind. So just a couple of states legalize it quite recently and automatically that must be the reason why the U.S. economy has been going down the drain for the last few years?

a reply to: Wrabbit2000

I refer to my previous argument, regarding the amount of stories we hear of FBI agents abusing their power.

In all honesty and maybe this is naive of me, but I trust the FBI probably more than any other federal agency these days. It's the only one that seems to have it's crap together on some level or another.

Then again, I don't live there, so I could be wrong.

I mean it's a principles thing with you, I get it. But the FBI does that already with undercover operations among other things right?!

~Tenth

a reply to: tothetenthpower

Hahaha, oh the irony. I love it when foolish policies come back to bite governments in the ass, right where they deserve it.

a reply to: tothetenthpower

While I am not a police officer, nor will I ever be one I do think the cannabis and drug laws in general create a divide amongst the police ranks.

For years many officers who were able to advance their careers via drug busts assumed the ranks and many still hold very high positions in departments all over the US. Because they made a career out of drug busts and most have only seen one side of the blue line in the dope game, they have an extremely biased view and that causes the strong conviction that the Drug War needs to continue.

I do not doubt that most who oppose legalization and reform to the drug laws have honest intentions, but their well intentions are misguided and the so called facts that were spread during the heart of the drug war have conditioned many to the point of blindly accepting the laws and incarceration for a perceived greater good.

a reply to: tothetenthpower

Well, it's a principles thing but one unique to my feelings about the FBI itself. It's apart from other agencies. Like you, I have held the FBI in higher regard than others, at least until recent times. By that, I'd look across a decade or more of time for the Bureau to really change.

Yes...they do a lot in undercover stuff. Did you know the FBI was never intended to be near undercover work? The point Hoover had with it was and is a good one, IMO. While someone may have to do it, every agency doesn't have to themselves and undercover work turns the cop INTO the criminal, if only temporarily and if only in role. Corruption..or the temptation of it, was the fear. Well founded, I might add.

Some changes right now just strike me as doing more damage than helping what they change.

They should test for actual THC, and have a zero tolerance policy for the actual THC, not the metabolites. That way you can not be high while at work, much like you can't be drunk at work. THC will last about the same amount of time as alcohol in the blood.

a reply to: Toadmund
didnt want the mods on me deleted the post

In Response to the O.P.

In Colorado and Washington, especially in Washington, the legalized marijuana is actually helping the fight against crime as the Mexican drug cartels are losing ground to legitimate businesses that have to get licenses. There are numerous checks and balances in the system that make it harder for criminals to use it to fund things like weapon purchases or whatnot.

The problem is that people don't like marijuana on principle, and instead of having a logical reaction, they have an emotional one - which leads to inaccurate policies.it

In other news, I still can't go to the store in Washington and buy a fatty, in case people were wondering - although in another year or so, there should be shops opening up. Setting up the legal framework and businesses are taking a few years to do. Each county gets a say, as well, in specific implementations.

originally posted by: OccamsRazor04
They should test for actual THC, and have a zero tolerance policy for the actual THC, not the metabolites. That way you can not be high while at work, much like you can't be drunk at work. THC will last about the same amount of time as alcohol in the blood.

That is not a bad idea, because right now even if you smoke at home and not at work, it would show up on the test.

I do know that cops in Seattle are able to smoke as long as they are not at work. Of course, Washington State is the first state to institute a blood THC content test for driving under the influence, and possibly stuff like that.

originally posted by: ChaoticOrder

originally posted by: LA1IMPALA

Pot is being legalized and our country is starting to turn into a 3rd world country.....hey wait a minute maybe there is a connection.

I'm sure there is a connection in your twisted mind. So just a couple of states legalize it quite recently and automatically that must be the reason why the U.S. economy has been going down the drain for the last few years?

I was under the impression that the connection was between the new Young Earth Creationist movement and other hard-line conservative movements and a degrading society. In Idaho, for example, studies and numerous policy examples have shown that these movements are negatively affecting the statistics of the state compared to others.

I think it really comes down to a failing education system, especially in some areas. Believe it or not, conservatives don't tend to like funding education, either because they think it will threaten their belief system from what I can tell.

Chinese hackers vs stoned American hackers, I wonder who will come out on top of that one? Not that we are already outnumbered 4 to 1 as it is. This entire legalization push will only benefit TPTB.

The end result will be it only providing billions of dollars more in Tax revenue for them to fund their Global Empire, nanny state, and to control even easier the millions of dumbfounded dip #s.

But hey, Smoke up Johnny! ~$heopleNation

a reply to: darkbake

I doubt it will be implemented, but yes it is. I think it gives everyone what they want. I don't advocate smoking pot, but I also don't advocate controlling everyone's lives.

a reply to: tothetenthpower

So interesting this , that the fed are like well , we can have great programmers but they like to smoke too
but its worth it !

So the other agency the CIA and the supposed war on drugs, if the war on illegal drugs and criminal organisations could be won by legislation of drugs
then what was all that money spent on?
Certainly not fighting wars on drugs , but CIA projects on overthrowing countries through proxy wars

a reply to: tothetenthpower

Funny....this was the exact reason I made it through all the testing from MS to FL yet was not accepted back in 2003....and my degree is a BS in Computer Science. Was recruited by the FBI in school and ran through 4 rounds of testing including going to a facility in FL for testing. Never lied about any of the things I had done yet they terminated because of smoking pot....

originally posted by: mclarenmp4
a reply to: theantediluvian

Same here in Scotland, IT pro's very rarely get drug tested even though you a working for huge multinationals & I have even worked offshore. Been working in the IT sector for 20 years and have only been tested once & I was given fair warning.
I think the reason why so many high functioning IT pro's use cannabis is that IT pro's have very active brains, I know from my own experience that it doesn't so much as slow down my brain processes but I can be much more focused when smoking regularly.
It's also a great tool for creative thinking and that comes in very useful at looking for different ways to hack into a system. People look at IT as very logical and non creative but you would be very surprised how creative the IT industry is, we are dreamers and creative thinkers so it goes hand in hand that we would smoke cannabis.

The creative and free thinking are some of the reasons why it's illegal. Big bro can't have that.

Aw........too bad. Really.
The best and brightest shouldn't be working for them anyway.
They can stay at home and watch cartoons all day.

I've got to throw my two cents in this pot

I've never known any companies in Canada that administers drug tests to test for pot or coc aine use, except the extra-ordinarily large ones. Not even as a contractor in government.

I have been to interviews in the US though, and have found that the IT/software companies I would have worked for would test me for drug useage, prior to allowing me to work.... wasn't allowed to work in the US - that is a different qualifications based story.

I've got ex-army trained, HIGHLY paid medical doctor friends up here in Canada - no one smokes pot daily like they do.

Cocaine use - now I've seen the effects of that - yikes. But it was almost inevitably those who were comfortable with the dealers of pot who got up in to the higher echelons. Rumour has it that the richer the kids who experiment - the faster they get in.... we see it in our upscale communities in various parts of the country.