Hey all,
I had a quick question regarding drug use and security clearances. For experimental drug use (Less than 6 times) what is the minimum amount of time that applicants should have to show that it shouldn’t be an issue regarding a security clearance? I’ve read that anywhere from 6 months - 1 year is the minimum time for adjudication, and was just wondering if that’s accurate based on what others have seen in the field.
I’m in the middle of going through a Secret clearance, any insight on this issue is appreciated
This all depends on the adjudicator as they all read the guidelines differently. You can find decision where people smoked weed twice 2-3 years earlier were totally honest the whole time and we’re denied. You can find instances were people smoked weed and did cocaine and we’re granted a clearance. Because the guidelines are open to interpretation it is hard to say. This forum has people that insist it’s minimum 1 year abstention. Others used to state minimum 6 months.
Unfortunately (or fortunately) there are no hard rules on this. There are over 700 adjudicators and they all interpret the guidelines differently.