History of Opiates

[Dennis Reynolds]

Hi Everyone,

To start, this is a question that has been plaguing me as I begin a new chapter in my life; to join the United States Military. I am a 25 year old College Graduate. I come from a wealthy family and was sent to an expensive, private University to further my education after High School. Although I've spent the last couple years in the workforce, making good money at a decent job, I always felt like there was something more out there for me. Almost like an underlying thought within my head telling me I don't want to be like everyone else in my town, waddling to work each morning, sleep-walking home each evening, not truly enjoying the life that this world has to offer.

I've had it in my mind for years that the U.S. Military was the path I wanted to go. I literally dream about the opportunity to serve my country all while experiencing new challenges and opportunities every day. The one thing that stands in my way of fulfilling my dream is a mistake (which lead to a larger mistake) that I made in College.

A year after college I hurt my back lifting weights and my buddy offered me a painkiller to help relieve the pain. I'll save you the time as you know where this story goes..To make a long story short, I spent around a year doing these drugs and another year taking the drug Suboxone to help get it out of my system. I am now over a year off both of these drugs (any drug test would test positive for only food and water) and want to pursue my dream of being in the Military and finally pursuing a career in a Governmental agency (FBI, CIA, DEA, ATF, SS, etc, etc..)

My question is, when I meet a recruiter I don't want to lie about my past. Should I make this clear from the beginning? What are my chances of reaching my goal? I truly appreciate everyones advice on this topic. I know it's a long post and I apologize. Thanks again.

 

[Todjaeger]

I am not a member of the US armed forces, or any other federal agency, so take my thoughts as the opinions they are.

From my POV the armed forces and/or gov't agencies will take one of two attitudes with respect to a former drug user and addict wishing to enlist, get commissioned, or be sworn in as a federal agent.

The first attitude is that they will not care about what a person had been doing over a year ago, as long as they have stopped, gotten treatment, and are no longer using/abusing substances. If this is the case, then being up front with a recruiter will most likely not harm your efforts to join the military.

The second attitude would be pretty much the opposite, that the view of the military and gov't agencies is that a former user and addict has too great a potential to relapse, and/or is too great a risk in terms of manipulation or blackmail to receive a security clearance. In this case, disclosing a history of substance abuse or dependency would likely disqualify one from serving, and failure to disclose such a history would likely be viewed quite poorly if/when such history was later discovered.

A few additional things to keep in mind. If the recruiter or agency asks about prior drug history or criminal activity, one should know that providing false information or withholding such information is a federal offense. Additionally, if you were ever arrested and/or convicted for anything, as part of the intake process a background check for criminal history can be done, which would show this information. As a side note, even if there are some arrests or similar, some things can be covered with a waiver (granted by a recruiting battalion commander or higher, depending on the nature of what required the waiver) while others cannot.

IMO one of the worst things which could be done would be to lie or omit such information, and then have the dependency issue return and then have everything come out including the prior history after problems had started to occur.

 

[Dennis Reynolds]

Thanks for your response. All good advice.