Associating with drug users

SECURITY CLEARANCE Q&A
1

Is associating with drug users, although not using yourself, going to bring up red flags in TS Poly that will result in a denial?

Some background I am a college student and no matter where you go there’s going to be pot smokers.
First year I was dormed randomly with people out of my choice, and nearly all of my suitemates smoked, although I was usually not around and did not participate.

After that the next year I signed a lease again with random roommates, (partly to get away from the old) and of course nearly all of them were weed users again.

Is there a way to explain or mitigate this situation? I read some of the earlier articles and associating with drug users seems like a clear way to result in a denial, however in my case I can’t really choose who to associate with because they are my roommates, and changing environments again isn’t going to guarantee that the situation is better. Next year though I plan on having a living situation where I will live on my own, will this be enough to mitigate my history of roommates??

2

Of course it will, someone was just denied for association with drug users.

4

I would argue that these are radically different cases.

5

I did not say he would not get his clearance, only answered his question. He is concerned about a poly and I read this as he was thinking about not telling, or obfuscating the truth.

6

I didn’t know that they get that specific in the polygraph…I thought they just ask if you do drugs or not and move on.

7

The clearance hierarchy knows that you don’t get to choose your college roommates and that you don’t get to control what they do. This comes up all of the time and all you need to do is be honest.