system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why can you openly admit to past drug use and get the job of running an entire country but you won't get hired by the FBI or the medical industry?
gpt
First off, the FBI has greatly relaxed their rules about past drug use. Even before that they had arbitrary numbers for the incidence of past drug use before disqualification. Something like if you smoked pot less than a dozen times, you were still okay. Even a few experiences with narcotics wasn't necessarily a problem.

Nowadays they judge applicants more on a standard of whether past drug use was problematic or indicative of addiction. More experimental use, even if more often than under the past guidelines, won't necessarily disqualify an applicant. It's very reasonable, and necessary these days since it's getting harder and harder to find enough qualified people who have never tried pot. We also have a much less hysterical understanding of drugs now, like the fact that only about 14% of the people who try heroin go on to become addicted. Drugs just aren't as scary as they once seemed.

Pretty much the same is true for the medical field. Anything that seems like addiction may raise a red flag, especially opiate addiction given that medical personnel may have access to drugs, but mere recreational use may be overlooked.

But that is dealing with employees, and employers have certain rights when it comes to discriminating based on past behavior. The president is not an employee of the government in that sense. That is he isn't hired by the government, he is given the job by the people who vote for him, so it is up to them to decide if his past history is acceptable.