Rep. Andrew Gray confessed in a Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday that he had once encouraged an applicant to the U.S. Army to lie on his application about his marijuana use. That would be a felony.
“As a current member of military if I smoked marijuana I would be, um, kicked out, like, because it is not allowed,” Gray said, starting his story.
Gray, who is a physician’s assistant and longtime member of the National Guard, said that a “doctor came to me and said his son wanted to join the military but ‘my son is a pot smoker.'”
Gray, who had the rank of captain in 2021, then told the committee how he advised the doctor that his son could not be honest on his application or he would not be admitted to the Army.
“I had to give him the advice that he cannot be honest on his application or he will not be accepted into the military,” Gray said.
In other words, Gray, a member of the Alaska Army National Guard, advised an applicant to commit fraud to get into the Army.
Lying to get into the Army is considered a felony of fraudulent enlistment, punishable by a $10,000 fine and up to three years in prison.
Gray was the legislator who led a House censure of Rep. David Eastman for comments that Eastman made in committee last month regarding abortion and disabled children.
The committee was hearing testimony about House Bill 28, which would expunge the criminal convictions of those who had been caught with marijuana before it was legal in Alaska. Judiciary Chair Rep. Sarah Vance advised Gray that the military has its own rules and would not be affected by this bill.
