Would the Houston police department really reject me just for TRYING a medication?

Question

I can honestly say that I've never done any drugs and I don't even drink alcohol socially. One time I was given a pill that's used to treat ADD and I only tried it because I thought I had a mild form of attention deficit disorder. I tried it to see if it would make a difference while I was in class. It didn't help at all and I even took tests to check if i had the disorder. Long story short... I disclosed this to the police department from the very beginning and 2 months later I got to phase 3 of the whole process and they reject me because of the drug use. Is this normal? I have a squeaky clean record. I'm sure everyone has tried some type of drug. I didn't even take the drug for the purpose of getting a high. I feel it was purely innocent.

Answer 1

Taking a prescription drug that was not prescribed to you is breaking the law, no matter what you were doing it for. This includes me taking my husband's pain medication for cramps- even if it is the same drug that my doctor prescribes. Technically, I took a controlled substance that was not my own prescription. So, you taking something that was definitely not prescribed has crossed a definite line. Obviously, the police department can reject you for that since they did. It is also possible that they rejected you for some other reason but it was easier to use the drug use for an excuse than, let's say, they don't like your personality.

FYI: pills for ADD generally have to reach specific blood levels which takes weeks. Taking one pill won't do fix it. Now, if you told them you had at one time thought you had ADD, they could be using THAT as the reason not to hire you.

Answer 2

Yes, They will reject for any type of drug use if you openly admit it.  Next time  you apply at a dept. do not admit to using any kind of drugs. If they request a polygraph and you fail that question, which you probably will because you took a drug. Then you can explain the reason you failed that question. However if you can come to the point in your mind that you never did any drugs, then your heart rate won't increase and the polygraph will be a breeze. If your not guilty try to learn how to let that go, so it won't effect your application in law enforcement to other depts. Don't give up!!! Houston is pretty hard to get into though.  

I don't know if you've thought about it, but Baylor University hires peace officers, so do the community colleges, because they carry a gun and if I'm remembering right, they have to be licensed as peace officers...  You could always go for things like that, to build your resume for the  bigger police depts.  Good Luck!

Katie

Answer 3

Almost all ADD drugs disqualify you for military service and any security oriented work.  By "try" the medication I take it you took someone else's prescribed medication.  This shows extremely poor judgement and would disqualify you for most law enforcement jobs.

There is no record of your "experiment" but polygraphs will catch you.  Probably should take a new career path.