Vilnius, Lithuania - February 16 2022: United States Marine Corps, USA or US army symbol on a soldier military uniform, is visible only part of the soldier, the jacket with the symbol of US ARMY, the country is member of NATO organization

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The U.S. Army has recently loosened some of its recruitment policy, removing certain barriers for people who had minor cannabis-related offenses, in a move aimed at widening the pool of potential recruits.

Besides increasing the maximum age for new enlistees from 35 to 42, the updated Army regulations loosened restrictions on people with minor cannabis-related offenses during the enlistment process. In practice, people who have a single conviction for cannabis possession or possession of drug paraphernalia will no longer automatically need a special waiver to join.

Before this update, people who had these types of convictions had to seek approval from Pentagon officials through a waiver process before they could be accepted for service. Usually, applicants had to wait at least 24 months and pass a drug test at a Military Entrance Processing Station before they could be cleared to enlist.

The regulatory update will take effect on April 20, a date that coincidentally corresponds with “4/20”, a term linked to cannabis culture in the United States and widely associated with informal celebrations of cannabis on that day.

These changes aim to make it easier for people to enlist, as such new regulations would reduce the administrative hurdles involved in seeking approval through the waiver process.

It also takes into consideration that cannabis laws in the U.S. have significantly changed over the past decade.

Today, 24 U.S. states and Washington, DC have legalized adult-use cannabis, whereas 39 states and Washington, DC have legalized it for medical use. Nevertheless, cannabis is still illegal at the federal level under Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). In 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump also signed an executive order to move the substance to Schedule III of the CSA, marking it as less dangerous. Since then, though, no significant updates have come from that order.

Nevertheless, removing the waiver requirement for minor cannabis possession offenses may ease the burden on people who want to enlist in the U.S. Army, who might otherwise have been deterred from applying.

But the Army’s stance on cannabis use remains unchanged, with the document stating that it “does not tolerate the use of marijuana or harmful or habit-forming chemicals or drugs.”