The Drug Enforcement Administration of the US has a quite set of strict employment criteria.

Applicants who are found, through investigation or personal admission, to have experimented with or used narcotics or dangerous drugs, except those medically prescribed, will not be considered for employment with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Exceptions to this policy may be made for applicants who admit to limited youthful and experimental use of marijuana.

While that policy might seem logical at first glance, it is not something that is really matched by other US government services which have a slightly more relaxed approach.

Moreover, it raises the question of disadvantaging a very large segment of the population who have experimented with drugs – well over 50% in some demographics depending on which studies you read.

The question then is what exact purpose the restriction on DEA employability serves.

The expectation that a “youthful experimenter” needs to admit to the DEA the commission of a crime in their youth in order to gain employment also seems somewhat counter-intuitive. Are the DEA willing to forgive that or not and if so does the forgiveness come for the crime or for the admission?

I suspect this might be one of those cases of grinning and bearing it because the search for a truly coherent answer may be elusive.