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Issue Encyclopedia · Guideline J · Criminal Conduct

Drug-Related Criminal Charge

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

Does drug-related criminal charge affect a security clearance?

Drug-Related Criminal Charge is an issue decided under Guideline J, Criminal Conduct. In the decided DOHA record it appears in 820 hearing-level cases, and 19% of the 819 decided ended with access granted (152 granted, 667 denied). The mitigating conditions judges credited most often, and example decisions either way, are below.

Basis: 819 decided hearing-level cases raising this issue. Descriptive history of decided cases, not a prediction.

More questions people ask the record

Decided cases

820

hearing-level decisions raising this issue

Granted

19%

152 granted · 667 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.

  • ¶ 32(a) · So much time has passed, or the circumstances were so unusual

    In granted cases
    97
    In denied cases
    47

  • ¶ 32(d) · Successful rehabilitation shown

    In granted cases
    61
    In denied cases
    27

  • ¶ 32(c) · No reliable evidence that the person committed the offense

    In granted cases
    38
    In denied cases
    21

  • ¶ 32(b) · The person acted under pressure that is unlikely to recur

    In granted cases
    30
    In denied cases
    10

Circumstances credited in granted cases

The specific circumstances the judge expressly credited among the granted cases on this issue where that detail was extracted.
  • rehabilitation evidence · credited in 18 granted cases
  • no subsequent offenses · credited in 15 granted cases
  • passage of time · credited in 6 granted cases
  • acknowledgment and remorse · credited in 5 granted cases
  • abstinence period documented · credited in 3 granted cases

Recent decided examples

  • ISCR Case No. 24-01085Granted2026

    Applicant, a defense contractor quality assurance program manager and Navy veteran, faced allegations under Guidelines J, E, and H involving decades of criminal conduct, traffic offenses, workplace di…

  • ISCR Case No. 24-02480Granted2026

    The applicant in this case was a 44-year-old male, married with one child, who had served in the U.S. Air Force and was employed as a staff engineer for a federal contractor. The Defense Counterintell…

  • ISCR Case No. 25-01071Denied2026

    Applicant, a 69 year old defense contractor employee, sought a security clearance under written record procedures. The SOR alleged marijuana use under Guideline H, a false statement and failure to dis…

  • ISCR Case No. 25-01276Denied2026

    Applicant, a pro se former service academy attendee in his twenties, admitted cocaine use and later falsifications tied to his SCA and a 2025 security interview. The judge found his drug involvement a…

See all 820 decisions on this issue

Related issues under Guideline J

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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