elismom wrote on Mar 11^th, 2010 at 7:34pm:

My advice to anyone...avoid the test if you can help it. There is obviously no rhyme or reason to it and if I can fail it about drug use, anyone can.I've never been so upset and shocked in my life.

The same thing happened to me, and it is hard to recover from; emotionally and professionally. I graduated from college last year with a Bachelor's Degree in Law Enforcement and went through a background investigation for the Border Patrol. I failed my first polygraph with them on the "Have you ever used or been associated with any illegal drug activity or use in the past?" question and it was the one that got me. Never even knew what pot smelled like until about 4 months ago (working in dorms at a university).

I was so upset from failing due to something that I am so against that I dreaded taking another polygraph, but when you want to find a job as a police officer you don't have a lot of options when it comes to avoiding polygraphs.

I applied for another PD in Wyoming and passed everything gloriously, except for the drug question. Nothing else, just the drug question. Its now a stigma in my brain and some days I will ask myself randomly "Have you ever used drugs??" and follow it with a stern NO, because I know its the truth- no matter what that damn test says otherwise.

I barely managed to get a job working security at a university. BARELY- because of my failed polygraph results.

:(  Keep your head up and know that you are NOT alone, but don't put too much faith into finding a dispatch or comm. center job unless they don't require a poly.