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Issue Encyclopedia · Guideline H · Drug Involvement

Benzodiazepine Misuse

What the decided record shows for this issue, computed from public DOHA hearing-level decisions. Descriptive history, not a prediction.

Does benzodiazepine misuse affect a security clearance?

Benzodiazepine Misuse is an issue decided under Guideline H, Drug Involvement. In the decided DOHA record it appears in 59 hearing-level cases, and 28% of the 58 decided ended with access granted (16 granted, 42 denied). The mitigating conditions judges credited most often, and example decisions either way, are below.

Basis: 58 decided hearing-level cases raising this issue. Descriptive history of decided cases, not a prediction.

More questions people ask the record

Decided cases

59

hearing-level decisions raising this issue

Granted

28%

16 granted · 42 denied or revoked

Official mitigating conditions cited

The formal mitigating conditions the case profiles identified on this issue, in cases that were granted and in cases that were denied. Each is shown with its paragraph number and a plain name. Read what each condition says.

  • ¶ 26(a) · So long ago, or so infrequent, that it is unlikely to recur

    In granted cases
    7
    In denied cases
    1

Recent decided examples

  • ISCR Case No. 25-00354Granted2026

    The applicant mitigated security concerns related to drug involvement, criminal conduct, and personal conduct. He demonstrated significant rehabilitation efforts, including participation in a veterans…

  • ISCR Case No. 25-00508Granted2026

    The applicant in this case was a 37-year-old defense contractor seeking a security clearance for the first time. The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency issued a Statement of Reasons (SOR)…

  • ISCR Case No. 26-00013Denied2026

    The applicant's security clearance was denied due to unresolved security concerns related to drug involvement and criminal conduct. While the applicant mitigated concerns under personal conduct and al…

  • ISCR Case No. 25-00893Denied2026

    Applicant, a 41-year-old pro se individual, was denied a security clearance under Guidelines I, H, and F. The decision relied on a long history of bipolar disorder with hospitalizations, suicide attem…

See all 59 decisions on this issue

Related issues under Guideline H

How these numbers are measured

Scope: decided hearing-level cases whose per-allegation profile records this issue, matched to the same issue value the search filters use, so a count here and a filtered search always agree. A case raising several issues counts under each one. The mitigating conditions and the credited circumstances below were extracted for a subset of the record, so both are counts of cases rather than rates. Pages exist only for issues with at least 25 decided cases, and † marks any split built on fewer than 20.

Reading the statistics

  • Granted = access granted or continued; Denied = denied or revoked.
  • Grant rate = granted ÷ (granted + denied).
  • † marks figures based on fewer than 20 cases, too few to be reliable.
  • Hovering any rate shows its statistical range (a 95% confidence interval).
  • Figures are descriptive counts over decided, public DOHA ISCR decisions, never predictions or assessments of any pending case.

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