An Empirical Assessment of the U.S. Army's Enlistment Waiver Policies: An Examination in Light of Emerging Societal Trends in Behavioral Health and the Legalization of Marijuana

Army enlistment standards are intended to ensure that applicants standards might are able to perform military duties successfully and to select those who are the most trainable and adaptable to service life. However, these also inadvertently screen out individuals who could have had successful careers if mitigating factors had been considered. Waiver authority provides the Army with the ability to reconsider initially disqualified applicants and make them eligible to enlist. The Army wants to use this authority judiciously and to ensure that it is informed by analysis so that its waiver policies do not result in poorer future soldier outcomes and lower readiness. Changes in Army waiver policy are often newsworthy and an area of concern among policymakers because of the perception that it reflects a lowering of enlistment standards and, ultimately, substandard military performance. Such scrutiny of Army waiver policy leads to questions about whether the concerns are merited and are supported by evidence and whether the Army more generally could do a better job of granting waivers. Questions about Army waiver policy also arise because of recent societal trends. In particular, marijuana legalization at the state level has expanded dramatically over the past two decades, leading to concerns that potential applicants could be more likely to have a history of marijuana. Army standards continue to stipulate that applicants who test positive for marijuana require a waiver to be eligible for enlistment. Furthermore, some recruits with a history of marijuana use also have misdemeanors or even more-serious legal offenses. However, little is known about how the outcomes of these recruits differ from the outcomes of other recruits. Another trend concerns the rising prevalence of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder(ADHD), anxiety disorders, and depression among children.