Worried about Secret due to drugs

SECURITY CLEARANCE Q&A
1

Hey y’all. I’m in the process of getting a Secret clearance for my engineering internship and I’m a little nervous that I’ll be rejected. I am a 22 year old college student at a top 10 university, and last year, I tried marijuana (like twice) and psychedelic mushrooms (once). I was forthcoming in my clearance application and made it clear that these were experimental uses and I never plan on doing them again.

I submitted my application on 3/10, and had my interview on 5/1. In my interview, I made it extremely clear that I do not plan on doing any substance again (I don’t even drink), and I’m not like secretive about trying these substances (he asked me if I’d have any problem with people knowing), so I can’t be like blackmailed with the info or anything. I have not heard anything back yet, and I’m definitely quite nervous. Do y’all have any thoughts? I know drug use is bad, but I can’t go back and change the past unfortunately.

2

What you describe sounds like “experimental use” and almost all agencies except for law enforcement have really become much less concerned about that. Used to be like a two year period since last use was pretty standard, then a year, now its practically ignored… as long as you did not have a security clearance at the time.

That may not completely alleviate your anxiety, but I hope it helps.

3

I did not have a clearance at the time. I’m also not gonna work for law enforcement, I’m doing an engineering internship for a company that does contract work for the government. I’m not sure how strict they’ll be for that.

4

I don’t think it is a question of being strict or lenient, rather, the adjudication guidelines have changed quite a bit over the past few years.