FBI Boss: Time to Hire Weed-Smoking Hackers?

The FBI needs top hackers to combat cybercrime, and many of those hackers are into marijuana, says the bureau's director. Right now, the FBI won't hire anyone who's smoked weed in the past three years, but it may be time for that to change, says James Comey, per the Wall Street Journal. "I have to hire a great work force to compete with those cyber criminals, and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview," he says.

Could policies change? The FBI is "grappling with the question right now," Comey said while speaking at a conference on white collar crime Monday. Asked by one attendee whether a friend who was a pot fan should be concerned about applying for work with the bureau, Comey said the friend "should go ahead and apply." The FBI has received congressional approval to hire some 2,000 new workers this year; many will focus on cybercrime, the Journal notes. (More FBI stories.)