A RECOMMENDED POLICY ON ACCEPTANCE OF APPLICANTS WHO HAVE AN ADMITTED OR DISCOVERED HISTORY OF DRUG USAGE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-05343A000100050006-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 11, 2001
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: May 20, 1974
• Content Type: REGULATION

ADMINIST1j' V - n
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Dra{-t of Revision
20 May 1974
BMM : c m is
A RECOMMENDED POLICY ON ACCEPTANCE OF APPLICANTS
WHO HAVE AN ADMITTED OR DISCOVERED HISTORY OF
DRUG USAGE
1. This draft policy paper is designed to revise policy stated
in a memorandum entitled "Applicant Drug Use," dated 6 October 1970,
a copy of which is attached. The Directors of Medical Services,
Personnel, and Security, in concert with the Associate Deputy
Director for Management and Services, have jointly developed and
recommended the policy herein contained.
2. Policy has been developed after consideration of certain
leading factors:
a) The use of unprescribed drugs, including marijuana, is
illegal in all Government jurisdictions. Such usage alone
does not automatically disqualify individuals for employment
who have had only light contact with these materials, or who
have been successfully rehabilitated (Drug Abuse Act of 1970).
b) We are addressing ourselves only to those cases where an
applicant has knowingly used drugs. This is in contrast to
cases where individuals for example may have unknowingly had
LSD surreptitiously planted in beverage or food.
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c) The term "experimental use" of drugs is not
susceptible to precise definition and it is therefore
subject to the judgment and experience of appropriate
Agency processing officers.
d) Current social mores and "peer pressure" may serve
as important motivating forces in individual circumstances
with respect to the experimental use of drugs.
3. The recommended applicant drug use policy is as follows:
The experimental use of drugs such as narcotics (including opium,
heroin, cocaine, morphine, and synthetic morphine substitutes such
as Demerol, etcetera), hallucinogens (including LSD, mescaline,
peyote, etcetera), stimulants (such as amphetamines, etcetera),
depressants (such as barbiturates, etcetera), and marijuana
by an applicant prior to application for Agency employment will not
automatically result in disqualification. Difficulty exists in
defining an absolute threshold below which an applicant is automatically
accepted and above which he is automatically rejected with respect
to drug usage. In cases of experimental usage, and in the absence of
other disqualifying information, the Director of Personnel can
institute applicant processing. If the reported use of drugs in the
applicant papers can be reasonably defined as indicating more than an
experimental level (dependency or addiction), the Director of Personnel
is authorized, at his discretion, to either reject the applicant or to
refer the matter to the Applicant Review Panel. Any member of the
Applicant Review Panel is at liberty to suspend the review of any case
so that he may take the opportunity to have the matter reviewed by
more senior personnel in his own office prior to 'taking the position
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at the Panel on the matter. If the field investigation and
technical interview of the Office of Security, plus the medical examinations
of the Office of Medical Services, develop no additional information on
drug usage, the applicant can enter on the usual probationary first
year of duty. If a listory of drug usage exists, his initial security
processing will include a specific briefing of the Agency policy
on the abstaining from the use of unprescribed drugs.
Copies forwarded to A-DD/MFS, D/Personnel, and D/Security
with a note "for consideration on new Drug Usage Poliyy."
from AD/MS
ONLY
lit '=i~ I . j`L'?~ AT] -ili 1:1 -* UAL
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