Question on follow-up interviews of friends

SECURITY CLEARANCE Q&A
1

Hi,

I have a possibly silly question. But I just finished my background interview with someone from the DCSA. During it I admitted to some use of Marijuana and a single use of mushrooms. I ended up giving names for witnesses who may also have used these substances for both of those occurrence. One contact for mushrooms and one for weed. For context, I live in California where things are either legal or decriminalized so hadn’t thought much of it before deciding to apply for a new job which requested me to get this clearance.

My question is, will what I said end up incriminating the people and will it possibly negatively affect them in the future? Either arrest or just a record of any kind Both for the mushroom and weed contacts. I’m fine with getting denied clearance if needed, but I wouldn’t want to jeopardize another person’s livelihood. I think one of them wants to work with gov contacts in the future, tho hasn’t applied for any clearance yet. Probably won’t need clearance for their work, but I’m a bit worried that I may have accidentally impacted their employment chances.

2

They are investigating you. They are not investigating your friends.

It’s not like they are going to take down notes that say “Well, Bob here has done drugs so we’ll start a file on him just in case he ever gets sponsored for a security clearance”.

If they ever get put in for a clearance, the government will start their investigation on them from scratch.

4 Likes
3

I see. So I gather then that any comments taken down are just on my record and should not go into friends’ records or turn into them being investigated. (idk if there are any “records” that might be shared from DCSA to other agencies so please excuse if the term “record” is incorrect here. Still new to this gov work world). Is that correct?

4

You are correct. It’s an investigation of you. Not them.

2 Likes
5

Ok, thanks for the clarification there