about 4 years ago back when I was in high school a friend of mine was growing a couple of marijuana plants. I never smoked any but I was curious about it so I touched the plant and picked off a few of the leaves to smell them and see what they were like. My questions are:
1. By doing this will this hinder me from passing the poly even though I have never smoked all I did was mess around with the plant.
2. Should I tell them the whole story up front?
To the best of my knowledge, the U.S. Marshals Service does not routinely require applicants to submit to polygraph screening. Their employment FAQ makes no mention of any polygraph requirement:
http://www.usmarshals.gov/careers/faq.html
However, to address your questions in the event that you were to be extraordinarily required to submit to a pre-employment polygraph:
1) Yes, mentioning that you had handled these plants is precisely the kind of admission that can be spun out of all proportion and used to wrongly disqualify you. For example, it could be quite easily be mischaracterized in the polygrapher's report as: "Subject admitted to hands-on involvement in the illegal cultivation of marijuana." At a minimum, mentioning that you handled marijuana plants will raise a huge red flag and set off alarm bells.
2) No. While applicants for positions of public trust have an ethical obligation to answer relevant questions truthfully, they are not obligated to reveal every indiscretion or personally embarrassing incident.