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I will take a stab at it. The key words are "intentionally engaged." If, after your root canal healed up, you decided to catch a legal buzz by taking the left over pain killers, then you may be perceived as one who makes imprudent choices or maybe even abuses (or will abuse) controlled substances.

Can anyone explain the previous post? I don't understand why answering a question truthfully concerning prescription drugs could be considered deceptive.

The correct answer to Sec. 23.5 of Standard Form 86 ("In the last seven (7) years have you intentionally engaged in the misuse of prescription drugs, regardless of whether or not the drugs were prescribed for you or someone else?") is NO. Check the NO box. And don't mention this anywhere else on the form. Don't speak of it with any background investigator.

If you check the YES box you'll be opening a can of worms and inviting an accusation of deception to the drug question on the polygraph.

Howdy, folks! I'm currently filling out the (brutal) SF-86 for an Intelligence Analyst position with the FBI, and have a quick question regarding that tire around so many people's necks: drug use.

Mind you, I've never taken a spliff off a joint in my life, and I've never done any drug ever recreationally. Seriously, ever - I've lived such a vanilla life, it would bore you to tears.

However, I DID work 80+ hours a week for about 11 months from June of last year into May of this year, and the two hours of sleep I got 5 days a week disappeared VERY quickly when I started doing that, and I was hit with insomnia and excessive sleepiness during my shifts. A friend recommended modafinil to help regulate my short sleep and long wake cycle, so I took modafinil to do just that. I stopped the day I quit that second job, because I readjusted VERY quickly to a normal sleep schedule and there wasn't any need for it anymore.

Now, modafinil isn't recreational. There's no buzz, no high, no nothing (you get more energy from a cup of coffee), you simply... don't get sleepy. No uppers, no energy boost, you just mentally feel like it's noon after a normal night's sleep instead of noon after no sleep for three days.

So, obviously, that leads me to this question: disclosure isn't an issue, as I'll admit readily to everything I've ever done in the SF-86 and PSI, and reap whatever it is I sowed, but would using modafinil bar me from employment with the FBI under their 10-year drug rule?

Thanks in advance for any insight y'all may provide!