Issue Encyclopedia · Guideline H · Drug Involvement
Marijuana
Does marijuana affect a security clearance?
Basis: 3,223 decided hearing-level cases raising this issue. Descriptive history of decided cases, not a prediction.
Decided cases
3,224
hearing-level decisions raising this issue
Granted
25%
799 granted · 2,424 denied or revoked
Official mitigating conditions cited
| Condition | In granted cases | In denied cases |
|---|---|---|
| ¶ 26(a) · So long ago, or so infrequent, that it is unlikely to recur | 609 | 145 |
| ¶ 26(b) · The involvement acknowledged, with abstinence established | 460 | 73 |
| ¶ 26(c) · Prescription misuse followed a prolonged illness and has ended | 128 | 46 |
| ¶ 26(d) · Treatment completed, with a favorable prognosis | 28 | 7 |
¶ 26(a) · So long ago, or so infrequent, that it is unlikely to recur
- In granted cases
- 609
- In denied cases
- 145
¶ 26(b) · The involvement acknowledged, with abstinence established
- In granted cases
- 460
- In denied cases
- 73
¶ 26(c) · Prescription misuse followed a prolonged illness and has ended
- In granted cases
- 128
- In denied cases
- 46
¶ 26(d) · Treatment completed, with a favorable prognosis
- In granted cases
- 28
- In denied cases
- 7
Circumstances credited in granted cases
- acknowledgment and remorse · credited in 51 granted cases
- abstinence period documented · credited in 22 granted cases
- signed intent with revocation clause · credited in 10 granted cases
- passage of time · credited in 9 granted cases
- severed ties to using friends · credited in 6 granted cases
Recent decided examples
The applicant mitigated security concerns related to drug involvement, criminal conduct, and personal conduct. He demonstrated significant rehabilitation efforts, including participation in a veterans…
The case involves an applicant seeking security clearance who faced allegations under Guideline B for foreign influence and Guideline H for drug involvement. The applicant admitted to the allegations …
The applicant mitigated the personal conduct security concern but failed to mitigate the drug involvement and substance misuse security concern. The applicant admitted to purchasing marijuana from Jan…
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…
Related issues under Guideline H
- Unspecified Drug Involvement (1,590)
- Cocaine (714)
- Drug Distribution / Dealing (520)
- Stated Intent to Use Again (497)
- Drug Test Failure (376)
- Psilocybin / Hallucinogenic Mushrooms (342)
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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