Marijuana Use Question for Larry Mullen
My child is a senior in high school and has received and accepted an appointment to a service academy. He told me several months ago that he had tried marijuana a couple of times the year before when he was a junior. I did most of the work on the dodmerb health history last June (before he confessed to me) and answered no to both the drug use and alcohol use questions based on conversations I'd had with him a short while before. I don't know if the examining doctor asked him about drug use specifically, but my son said that he did not admit to it at the physical. He passed and is medically qualified.
He may have also denied it during his local officer interview (last summer) as well.
I suggested earlier in the year that he "come clean" but he refused, saying it was no big deal and he didn't want to do anything to risk losing his appointment. I backed off.
A few days ago we got the packet with all the forms he needs to complete in order to report this summer.
One of the forms is the SF-86, which asks again about illegal drug use.
I intend to make the case again that everything will be better if he tells the truth.
Obviously, he's terrified that he'll lose his spot if he admits to what he did.
It's easy for me to say, but I think it's worth the risk for him to own up to what he did and face whatever consequences that may come.
And I intend to pull out all the stops to make my case.
However, I don't think he's risking much.
While I don't know for sure (and I guess nobody can know for sure), I think that a sincere "Here's what I did, I was too scared to admit it before but I want to be a person of integrity so I'm going to admit it now" will not jeopardize his appointment.
Yes, he smoked pot a couple of times (he has never been in trouble and has no police record).
Yes, he probably lied about it to the doctor at his physical.
But I'm thinking that if he confesses now on his SF-86 that he will most likely not be turned away from the service academy.
I expect that your advice will be to do all I can to persuade him that telling the truth in this situation is his best option.
But, the reason for this post is to see if you agree that the risk of losing his spot is small or maybe even non-existent. I'll await your reply.
