My Bio/Drug History

[CJstudent33]

Hello,
I am inquiring about a future career in law enforcement. I have made some poor decisions in my teenage years and I am well aware of the uphill battles that I face because of my actions. I am 22 years old and a soon to be college graduate. I am 6 credits away from earning my Bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice and minor in Spanish. I am a four-time letter winner in collegiate football. I believe that my participation in a collegiate athletics portrays some of the hard work it takes to carry a career in the real world. I have had about 5 jobs over 7 years and have never been fired/laid off. I have changed jobs solely because of college and new opportunities. I am in good physical shape with no physical ailments or diseases. I have been dedicated to this career ever since I changed majors when I was 20.......(here lies my concern) from ages 15 to 19 I regularly used marijuana through high school and into college. My first 2 years of college I studied Business and had no intentions of being a police officer. I regularly used marijuana as stated before. Also, at age 18 I experimented with mushrooms once and once only. I have not used a drug since I was 19 this now puts me about 2 years removed from marijuana use and about 4 years from the mushroom use. There is no excuse for my actions and I am aware of how irresponsible I was. It is still my dream to be a LEO. I am asking for your honest opinions and answers of how this may affect me. In addition if I am going to see significant hurdles; what can I do in order to make myself a stronger candidate for a police department? I will continue to push to achieve whatever God has planned for me whether that is with a LE agency or in some other field. I thank you in advance for your honest answers and guidance.

Hopeful Police Candidate

[retdetsgt]

Hallucinogens, such as mushrooms are automatic DQ's in most departments, even one use. Experimenting with marijuana is usually accepted, regular use is not.

[CJstudent33]

Ok thank you for the input....do you believe there will still be an opportunity if I allot enough time between my past and application process or are you saying it's going to be a permanent problem?

[retdetsgt]

The mushrooms will be a permanent problem for most departments, but I can't speak for every single one in the country. Smoking dope for four years is a long time, you might overcome that, but it will take more than a couple of years. No guarantee though.

Congrats on staying clean for two years though. Stick with that and good things can happen even if it's not LE.

[Big Sexy]

From the federal side of the house the mushroom would be an automatic and permanent disqualification.

Even if it wasn't for the mushroom usage, 4 years of continuous marijuana usage goes well beyond experimentation and would by itself be disqualification.

[CJstudent33]

Ok thanks for the help guys...if you have any other insight I am all ears