Chances of getting hired

[Peen]

Hello, I am 21 years of age, and I am about to finish the Police Academy and take my TECLOSE(I put myself through it and payed my own way) I had been saving up for it since about two summers ago. I was wondering my chances of getting hired with a police department.

I graduated highschool with a 3.2 gpa, scored an 1100 on my SAT, and am about to graduate with my Associates of arts with emphasis in Criminal Justice about the same time I finish the Police Academy(been doing the academy and classes this semester, its been tiring :D but Im making it ). I should end up with a 3.2 gpa in College too. I have very good references, I have been doing CO-OP with a local Police Department for this past year, and will be able to use the Police Cheif as a reference. My Girlfriends dad(Future Father in Law) is a State Trooper, and is a seargant I have known him for a while and will use him as a reference also.

My Question is however, I was really really stupid in highschool and smoked marijuana about 10 times or so. I dont really remember how many because Highschool was so long ago, and I have had so mutch happen since then. I was very stupid and realize the mistake that I made, fortunatly my Grandpa "shown me the light" so to speak, and helped me correct the error of my ways and turn my life around and start doing good in Highschool. However, like anyone else I do have the occasional beer with friends everyonce in a while, but never ever drink and drive, since my dad was killed by a drunk driver when I was two.

Being a Police Officer is something that I have aspired to do since I was little and I really hope my stupidity in Highschool doesnt mess up my chances to be a Law Enforcment Officer.

Any feedback on my situation would be nice, and dont be afraid to be brutally honest. Im not here to get sunshine blown up my *** :D

Thankyou for your time.

[metallicat]

Can I ask a question? If you wanted to become a police officer since you were really young, why did you smoke marijuana at all?

[Peen]

Well I can throw excuses at you all day, but it doesnt change the fact that I was extremely stupid. If I had a time machine right now I would definatly port my self back in time and kick myself in the teeth a few times and tell myself to not be dumb(and I would also tell myself to invest in microsoft). But if it was anything besides my own stupidity, I would probably say peer pressure. When you are in the highschool enviorment now adays, it is all around you, and its hard not to take a try. I just wish I could go and kick myself and use some moral fortitude. That whole period of my life my life was heading in the wrong direction, my grandpa got sick for a while(stroke) so I had no father figure in my life, I started failing school because I was smoking marijauna, hanging around with the wrong crowd, the whole bit. Fortunatly one day when I was with my grandpa one day while he was in the hospital, and having a conversation with him( If you wanna call talking with a incoherent stroke victim a conversation) but I had an ephiphany, I realized that I needed to turn my life around and kick myself into gear if I wanted to make anything of myself I would have to stop living how I was living and turn myself around, noone was going to do it for me. So I stopped hanging out with the people I was with, put my nose in the books and never looked back.

Basically I was stupid, and juvinile. Thats why we have our juvinile system today, because we assume that juviniles cannot make the correct choices in life on their own so we do not put them on par as we would as an adult. Hence I was a juvinile making the wrong choice, Im just glad that I matured. And now that I am adult and I look back I realize how stupid I was.

I hope this answered your question

[jariggs]

Nah, no biggie. There's quite a few LEO's out there that have tried MJ before. Heck, even the FBI allows past MJ use as long as a certain amount of time has elapsed (forgot the exact amount). Just tell them the truth.

The kicker is that you never tried any harder drugs....right? The hard drugs can DQ you from the get go. As long as a good amount of time has passed since the last use of MJ I think you're fine. Ten times could be considered experimentation by SOME agencies, not all.

[metallicat]

My definition of experimenting is ONCE, but that is just me...I have not been through a hiring process.