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Forgive me for asking if you are uncomfortable saying, but were they correct about your drug use? I'm coming very close to being 100% eligible for my security

Forgive me for asking if you are uncomfortable saying, but were they correct about your drug use? I'm coming very close to being 100% eligible for my security clearness but some of those questions would be tricky for me right now. I've often wondered if I could round 8 years up to 10 to pass a polygraph.

Tushon 7y ago
As far as I've heard, it is more about lying than past use (unless that past is a month ago and was a real bender). Telling them the truth about something that happened 9 years ago isn't likely to get you booted.
throwawy123 7y ago
Unless you used to have a serious meth or heroine problem I'd say you're fine. ;) I was pretty honest about my drug use. The way they phrase the questions sometimes leaves you with a bit of doubt, though. Like, "How many times did you use this drug?" I'm not sure who keeps a really diligent record of how many times they do drugs at parties. But, yeah, I tried to be as accurate as possible, modulo that doubt about how possible it is to accurately answer these questions.
- bradknowles 7y ago
  At least when they interviewed me back in 1989, I was as honest with them as I could be about what I could remember, and I was honest with them about how much I couldn't remember. I have no idea what the rules are now.
everdrive 7y ago
Just don't be inconsistent.
tdfx 7y ago
Depends on the position. For defense and intelligence agencies, they want to see that there's nothing "recent" (past few years) or "chronic" (borderline or outright addictive behavior). If you smoked pot or did cocaine 8 years ago very infrequently you should have no issues. HOWEVER: law enforcement agencies are quite a different story and tend to be much stricter in their requirements. Some, like the FBI, have public drug qualifier policies you will need to meet [1] and there is no wiggle room (1 day short of 10 years and you're 100% ineligible). Some agencies do not publish this policy (i.e. Secret Service) and you have to guess whether you're eligible. The most important thing to remember is that whatever you admit on these forms will be on record for review by any agency for the rest of your life. DO NOT try to give extract or estimated numbers of usage on your SF-86 unless they are exceedingly low numbers. You can be honest with your background investigator during the followup but there's no reason to commit those things to writing on a form that's likely to be easily accessible later on. [1] https://www.fbijobs.gov/working-at-fbi/eligibility https://www.fbijobs.gov/working-at-fbi/eligibility

Tushon 7y ago

As far as I've heard, it is more about lying than past use (unless that past is a month ago and was a real bender). Telling them the truth about something that happened 9 years ago isn't likely to get you booted.

throwawy123 7y ago

Unless you used to have a serious meth or heroine problem I'd say you're fine. ;) I was pretty honest about my drug use. The way they phrase the questions sometimes leaves you with a bit of doubt, though. Like, "How many times did you use this drug?" I'm not sure who keeps a really diligent record of how many times they do drugs at parties. But, yeah, I tried to be as accurate as possible, modulo that doubt about how possible it is to accurately answer these questions.

bradknowles 7y ago
At least when they interviewed me back in 1989, I was as honest with them as I could be about what I could remember, and I was honest with them about how much I couldn't remember. I have no idea what the rules are now.

everdrive 7y ago

Just don't be inconsistent.

tdfx 7y ago

Depends on the position. For defense and intelligence agencies, they want to see that there's nothing "recent" (past few years) or "chronic" (borderline or outright addictive behavior). If you smoked pot or did cocaine 8 years ago very infrequently you should have no issues. HOWEVER: law enforcement agencies are quite a different story and tend to be much stricter in their requirements. Some, like the FBI, have public drug qualifier policies you will need to meet [1] and there is no wiggle room (1 day short of 10 years and you're 100% ineligible). Some agencies do not publish this policy (i.e. Secret Service) and you have to guess whether you're eligible. The most important thing to remember is that whatever you admit on these forms will be on record for review by any agency for the rest of your life. DO NOT try to give extract or estimated numbers of usage on your SF-86 unless they are exceedingly low numbers. You can be honest with your background investigator during the followup but there's no reason to commit those things to writing on a form that's likely to be easily accessible later on. [1] https://www.fbijobs.gov/working-at-fbi/eligibility https://www.fbijobs.gov/working-at-fbi/eligibility