USAO Internship - Prior Weed Use Forum

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Anonymous User
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USAO Internship - Prior Weed Use

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Feb 12, 2023 11:22 am

Hi everyone, I'm accepted as a 1L for USAO internship this summer (SDNY/EDNY/DC). I've never been a habitual smoker but I smoked weed in college on occasion (it was legal in my state). The problem here is I'm a KJD and my last use is within the last year. I stopped smoking in law school but I'm still worried this will DQ me. Any experience with this? I've heard the internship is slightly less stringent than the actual AUSA background check. But I plan on being completely honest, I assume that will prompt some phone calls?

Should I start looking at other options?

Anonymous User
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Re: USAO Internship - Prior Weed Use

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Feb 12, 2023 5:15 pm

I'd just come clean to the internship coordinator. Honesty is the best policy. They may say it's not a big deal or that it is problematic, but better to know now than later.

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Re: USAO Internship - Prior Weed Use

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Feb 14, 2023 1:36 am

Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Feb 12, 2023 5:15 pm
I'd just come clean to the internship coordinator. Honesty is the best policy. They may say it's not a big deal or that it is problematic, but better to know now than later.
Agreed. No one’s going to judge you personally for this, but if it’s going to matter, it’s probably best that you talk with them ahead of the background check - my understanding is that they’ll tell you if it’s going to be an issue, and if it is, you can withdraw before filling out the background check questionnaire. Any information you submit lives in that electronic system basically forever. I mean, if you’re applying years from now no one will care that you smoked weed in college (maybe it will even be legal federally then??), but still, it makes things simpler not to have red flags raised at all.

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Re: USAO Internship - Prior Weed Use

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Feb 14, 2023 4:07 pm

Past year is an automatic disqualified at some offices, I’m afraid. I’d ask your career services first, and then go from there.

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Re: USAO Internship - Prior Weed Use

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Feb 16, 2023 10:59 am

AUSA here. Call this office at their official number: https://www.justice.gov/oarm

The OARM is harsher about narcotics use than the FBI national security screening that you go through, although your narcotics use will also be vetted by the FBI to whom you will need to disclose everything. Don't listen to any dumbasses who tell you to lie about anything. The OARM can be helpful in saving you a lot of time and stress, because they may be able to tell you right over the phone whether your approval might be in jeopardy given your narcotics usage. If it is in jeopardy, at least you'll know and can start planning accordingly.

Whether SDNY itself cares or not varies according to who the U.S. Attorney is. There are a lot of older folks in USAO offices around the country who had to survive a literal-zero-tolerance regime to get there, so they tend to be a little crankier about this topic than the direction the rest of society seems to be going. You may not have to inform the SDNY at all though. It is the OARM and FBI alone who ask you these sensitive security-related questions, so it is not necessarily true that anyone at SDNY will even learn about it. For that reason, I dislike the idea of talking about this issue with your SDNY internship coordinator. Answer only questions that are asked of you; and answer them with unflinching honesty, but don't answer more than what is asked.

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Re: USAO Internship - Prior Weed Use

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Feb 16, 2023 9:18 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Thu Feb 16, 2023 10:59 am
AUSA here. Call this office at their official number: https://www.justice.gov/oarm

The OARM is harsher about narcotics use than the FBI national security screening that you go through, although your narcotics use will also be vetted by the FBI to whom you will need to disclose everything. Don't listen to any dumbasses who tell you to lie about anything. The OARM can be helpful in saving you a lot of time and stress, because they may be able to tell you right over the phone whether your approval might be in jeopardy given your narcotics usage. If it is in jeopardy, at least you'll know and can start planning accordingly.

Whether SDNY itself cares or not varies according to who the U.S. Attorney is. There are a lot of older folks in USAO offices around the country who had to survive a literal-zero-tolerance regime to get there, so they tend to be a little crankier about this topic than the direction the rest of society seems to be going. You may not have to inform the SDNY at all though. It is the OARM and FBI alone who ask you these sensitive security-related questions, so it is not necessarily true that anyone at SDNY will even learn about it. For that reason, I dislike the idea of talking about this issue with your SDNY internship coordinator. Answer only questions that are asked of you; and answer them with unflinching honesty, but don't answer more than what is asked.
OP here. Thanks for this. I actually spoke with the fedgov-counselor at my school who suggested doing the same. Spoke with OARM and it seems the very occasional frequency and recency of my use should not be an issue. Thanks for the helpful reply

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