Drug use and security cleances

[c130herc]

What is the name of your state? OH

Does smoking marijuana two or three times while possessing a SECRET security clearance make someone ineligible for a TOP SECRET clearance. Also, the marijuana incident took place a few years ago.

Thanks
HercWhat is the name of your state?

 

[seniorjudge]

Q: Does smoking marijuana two or three times while possessing a SECRET security clearance make someone ineligible for a TOP SECRET clearance?

A: It will give you weak wienie; but I don't know about the clearance thingie.

 

[quincy]

Thanks for starting your own thread, c130herc.

Smoking marijuana can make a difference in whether you are granted Top Secret clearance, but drug use is only one factor looked at when determining who gets security clearance.

The clearances issued by the Department of Defense are Confidential, Secret, and Top Secret. To have been issued Secret clearance already, the DoD investigated your past seven years, your written reports and your records, verified all of the information, and determined, after examining all of the information gathered on you, that you were eligible to have access to Secret classified information. In order to be issued Top Secret clearance, the DoD will do another investigation, reviewing your last ten years. A comparison will be made between the information gathered originally and the new information - to check for changes, omissions, etc.

What will be looked at with your marijuana use is how recent the drug involvement was and whether it was an isolated event. If a seven year investigation showed only minor drug use early on, for instance (especially if it occurred when you were young and stupid), and no recurrence during those seven years, and there were no other concerns with your record, you would probably be issued Secret security clearance. If, however, a ten year review shows this early use of marijuana and, in addition, your more recent use of marijuana, the earlier use of marijuana takes on greater significance. It shows a recurrence.

What also matters in obtaining securtiy clearance is how honest you are in reporting the drug use (or anything else that may be questionable in your past), and the circumstances surrounding the use.

I obviously cannot tell you if you have jeopardized any chance of being issued a Top Secret security clearance because of your use of drugs while having Secret security clearance. As I said, drug use is only one of many things considered when you are investigated. How honest you are about the use is an important factor, however, from everything I have read and researched on security clearances, and you would not want investigators to discover on their own, for instance, that you were once arrested for marijuana use. The reporting of it should be made by you, voluntarily, before it is discovered by investigators.

You should check out any information provided here, by the way, before relying on it 100%. I am not an attorney, and I am not an expert on security clearances (although I am certainly becoming one rapidly ).

 

[c130herc]

Thanks quincy!

Do you know if a polygraph is mandatory for a top secret clearance?

 

[quincy]

It appears to be, yes.

While polygraph tests are usually voluntary, they are mandatory to obtain Top-Secret security clearance in most, if not all, departments. I am not sure if they are mandatory in the Department of Defense, however. I know that some military units prohibit the use of polygraphs on their members, and there appears to be, from what I have read, no uniform standard as to when polygraphs are required and on whom in the DoD.

Security clearances cannot be denied if the results of the polygraphs are inconclusive, and different departments will put different weight on the results. Unsatisfactory results can always be challenged.

Of the departments that issue security clearances, the FBI relies the most strongly on the results of the polygraph test (which are mandatory for ALL employees at the FBI and are administered through an FBI polygraph program), while other departments may only use the polygraph as one investigative tool out of many and the results, whatever they may be, will not be the sole basis for a security clearance decision.

The 2004 Terrorism Prevention Act was supposed to address the differences in polygraph practices and policies between the various departments, but they are still not uniform or consistent from department to department - some departments will have their own polygraph programs while others look to outside agencies to conduct the testing, and results of the tests will often vary significantly from department to department, depending on who is giving the test and how it is given.

A few side notes: The Supreme Court said in a 1998 majority opinion: "There is simply no consensus that polygraph evidence is reliable," and the National Academy of Sciences found most polygraphs to be of low quality, unreliable and frequently inaccurate, and the Department of Justice has eliminated the use of polygraphs in all but a few areas (security clearances is an area where polygraphs are used, however).

Again, same advice as before - this information should not be relied on for 100% accuracy.

 

[Ronin]

Admitting to any recreational drug use will almost invariably guarantee rejection of a top secret clearance.

If drug use is denied and a polygraph is inconclusive to the extent that is raises any doubt as to the truthfulness of the individual being tested, that could still be a potential problem, but it would then depend on a lot of other variables.

Inasmuch as security clearances are concerned, the granting or denial of such is done in a black box of sorts protected by national security policies from challenges to the review process. Bottom line is one does not have to be given, nor will likely be given, any reasons for denial of a top secret clearance.