So I think i'm pretty screwed.

[CritterNurse]

Why? My parents were hippies, and I grew up listening to Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Janis Joplin, etc. When a song would come on the radio, they'd say, "Oh that's a great song, isn't it? That's Jimi Hendrix, he's dead. Drug overdose." "Oh, that's a great song, isn't it? That's Jim Morrison and The Doors. He's dead too, drug overdose." Lather, rinse, repeat... I grew up TERRIFIED of drugs. Parental warnings, WIN.

Sounds like my parents. They were very up front with what they did and did not do in their youth. I also listened to that type of music growing up, and knew about the various death-by-overdose artists.

Now granted I was caught drinking beer as a toddler. Someone left an open bottle unattended at a party and I found it, and my parents didn't notice right away. Apparently I liked the taste of beer when I was that little, but my parents soon learned to keep a better eye on me around beer bottles. Can't stand the stuff now.

 

[Anjel]

 

[EpiEMS]

So I recently got my EMT-B and was looking forward to working in the field, now please don't judge but in my younger years I experimented with a variety of drugs. I am clean now, I would like to get a job as a paid on call with a fire department but I found out they polygraph test, on the application they asked if I ever did any drugs obviously I said no thinking I would be automatically disqualified. Should I even bother trying to get with a department? Should I bother going on to be a Paramedic? Will I just be stuck working privates or in a hospital?

No judgement here especially considering that by 21 years of age, more than half (54%, SE 2.8%) of Americans have used marijuana (http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0050141).

Polygraphs are not quite scientific (viz.: http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309084369). Heck, the National Research Council of the National Academies classified them as bunk (more or less).

Ethically, I would be hard pressed to see a problem with healthcare providers having had used marijuana (or other illicit substances) -- certainly not currently using them, but "youthful indiscretion" can hardly be a disqualifying factor, at least, from an ethical point of view.

 

[Handsome Robb]

Polygraph tests aren't designed to see what you've done they're designed to test you honesty and integrity.

I have multiple arrests, spent my time doing plenty of dumb :censored::censored::censored::censored: in the past, my company actually kept me out of jail with a letter of rec.

It not gonna be easy but it's doable.