Drug Use confession

[neofreak1]

What is the name of your state? AR

Hello all. I have servered the Air Force now for over seven years. During my second year, I was hanging around with some bad people, and made the mistake of using marijuana. I tried it twice. The second time I tried it, I realized what a mistake I was making and have never touched it since. Both of these were done in the same weekend, off base. These were the only times in my entire life that I have ever touched drugs. It has been over five years now, and I'm looking at possibly joining OSI. I want to be 100% truthful during the interview and want to know that, if I admit this, what will be the consequences. I have maintained an impeccable record, scoring high on every EPR, and never receiving any negative paperwork. I am also currently a SSgt.

Thanks in advance.

[fozzy2]

The consequences could be drastic indeed. If you admit to drug use now you could be administratively discharged or perhaps even court martialed. Indeed, USAF policy may leave your commanders with no discretion (i.e. "zero tolerance"), in which case your good record will be irrelevant.

I even advise caution about discussing this with a JAG lawyer. Before even breathing a word make certain the attorney is representing YOU and is not acting as an agent of the government.

Cases like this are ethical minefields. On one hand an attorney shouldn't advise you to lie. On the other hand, your being honest will probably only result in you being punished for an incident which is long past and arguably has not resulted in any real damage to government interests. But this is "illegal drugs", which the government considers a special case. After all, they normally don't ask "have you ever driven drunk?". If you've never been caught, they are perfectly happy. But drugs.....Oy Vey!

Maybe OSI is not such a good career choice for you. Are they going to give you a polygraph?

[neofreak1]

Wow, I figured it would probably be something like that. As to the poly exam I'm not sure. When they do background checks they ask about drug usage, so if I would be under poly that would definately red flag it.