ON THE JOB

It's probably no surprise that drug use can complicate getting a
security clearance, but what if it's your spouse using the drugs?

Q: I do not do drugs, but my husband occasionally smokes marijuana.
Since it is sometimes in my house, I am worried that this will reflect
poorly on me even though I don't use it. I already have a secret
clearance, but can my husband's behavior be held against me?

A: Obviously, no marijuana in the house would be best. But Jim
O'Heron, who as an official with the Defense Security Service oversees
security investigations of workers employed by private firms who need
clearances for access to classified government documents, said this
woman could attain a top-secret clearance even though her application
might become complicated.

"In life nothing is certain," he said, "but normally [the
circumstances described here] would not have a detrimental effect on
her chances of obtaining a top-secret clearance."

O'Heron said the application for a top-secret clearance would "only
ask about the applicant's use of illegal drugs and not associates. She
has not used drugs and hopefully will not partake."

But O'Heron said because investigations for top-secret clearances are
more intensive than those for the lesser confidential or secret
clearances, it is possible that investigators would find out about the
husband's marijuana use through interviews with neighbors or friends
of the couple.

O'Heron said, "That would be reviewed. How serious is the
information?" He said that investigators would then almost certainly
ask the woman about her husband's use, whether she has smoked with him
and whether the marijuana was stored in their house.

As for personal marijuana use, O'Heron said, Defense Security has no
specific time demarcation line. But in general, he said, use in the
past two years might be a problem in winning a clearance.