PSA for applicants: Weed is illegal

[human234895]

The SMART Scholarship application opens today! This is a friendly reminder to all applicants that marijuana is a Schedule I substance in all jurisdictions of the United States. If you are awarded a scholarship, you will be held to the full standard of federal law during clearance adjudication even if you live in a region that has decriminalized a drug by local ordinance or statute. This is an issue that has caused problems for a lot of otherwise fantastic candidates for national security work in recent years, often because they simply don't realize that weed truly is still illegal at the federal level. If you are applying for SMART and use weed, I suggest you stop immediately. That will maximize your so-called mitigation period (length of time since a security concern was relevant). The same applies to all other illegal substances which have been decriminalized at local and state levels in various places. Good luck with your applications!

https://www.dea.gov/drug-information/drug-scheduling