The shortage of sworn law enforcement officers across the country is widespread. It’s particularly critical in Portland, Oregon, and it’s not a budget issue. Actually there is a lot of money to get around; Police Department’s 2022 budget is large enough ($249 million) to hire recruits for $65,000, including a $5,000 starting bonus. There just aren’t enough takers.

Though police shortages vary from state to state, the trend is clear: law enforcement agencies are struggling to fill their ranks. A 2021 Statista report confirmed that the country’s 660,288 full-time police officers had shrunk by almost 50,000 from 2013. The National Police Support Fund calls the recruit shortage “profound and complex.”

Is drug testing partly to blame?

To join the Portland’s Police Bureau (PPB), an applicant must not have used cannabis products for a full year prior to applying. “Although marijuana is legal in Oregon and some states, it is still a state-controlled substance that is illegal to possess or use,” she said PPB website.

What should I do? Portlanders have an idea

“Let the cops do what other Oregonians have been doing legally for years: call it a day, flop on the couch, and smoke a J,” suggested an op-ed in Portland’s Willamette Week.

After all, it wouldn’t be the first federal state to do this.

In New Jersey, Police officers are allowed to use cannabis Free from punishment.

In contrast, the New York cops are strictly forbidden also to consume outside of the service. Although police recruits are not automatically disqualified for prior pot use.

The same is true for New Orleans, where the year-long review of cannabis use for recruits ended in September. Incidentally, the situation in NOLA is dramatic: since the beginning of the pandemic, the police force has fallen below 1,000 police officers for the first time in decades.

Seriously, what to do? Here’s what the police chiefs say

With drug testing and restrictions on cannabis…