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A joint. A tab of Ecstasy. A ride in a cocaine user's car. It doesn't take much to be convicted of a drug offense.
And the fine, jail time and probation are the least of your worries. It's your future that's really in trouble.
Say goodbye to practicing law. Say hello to roadblocks toward a career in health care, education or transportation.
"It's like gum you can't get off your shoe," said Roy Jay, the founder and executive officer of Project Clean Slate, an Oregon nonprofit that helps people clear their records.
Go to rent an apartment, get a government loan or apply for graduate school, and there's that ubiquitous box: "Have you ever been convicted . . . ?" Even volunteering at the town library or helping out on a child's field trip can get iffy.
"There are serious, serious economic effects for the person who gets arrested for marijuana or other drugs," said Allen St. Pierre, the executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "There are lost-opportunity costs."
It's here: the age of the universal criminal background check, where it is just about impossible to leave that youthful indiscretion behind on the courthouse steps. And the costs to the individual, financial and otherwise, are mounting.
You won't see these so-called collateral consequences spelled out in 6-foot letters on anti-drug billboards. To the contrary, these are known as the silent or invisible punishments, in part because judges and lawyers aren't required to inform people during plea deals.
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"Those people are terrified. It's like the sky is falling in on them. They don't want to go to jail," said Richard Boire, a lawyer who wrote a report on the collateral sanctions of marijuana convictions. "They just want to get out of there as quickly as possible."
"Now they've done their probation, and they're stuck in a world they can't get out of."
Everybody's checking
For $100, Employment Screening Resources, one of scores of background-checking companies, will check each jurisdiction where someone lived during the past seven years. Business is booming."You'd be hard-pressed to find any company these days, save a mom-and-pop, that doesn't do criminal-records checks," said Jared Callahan, the director of client services.
State licensing boards can prohibit drug offenders from working in health care, education and other fields. Negligent-hiring lawsuits, with their hefty jury awards, keep other industries on edge about putting anyone with a whiff of risk behind the wheel, near money or around the public.
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Why not tax marijuana?According to government statistics, the market value of marijuana produced in the United States exceeds $35 billion annually. The illegal plant is the No. 1 cash crop in 12 states.
"If one of those people you hire goes out and does something awful, there's no end to your liability," said Larry Henry, an employment lawyer in Tulsa, Okla.
"It also gets down to bottom-line considerations: Are they going to be absent more? Are they going to have more medical problems? Are they going to be a rule follower?"
Growing fears
Since 9/11, when Americans became hyperconscious about knowing exactly who was working where, security fears have ballooned, screeners say.Federal law does offer protection. Employers must consider the date and nature of a person's offense and whether it is relevant to the job. But in some cases a background report might only say "conviction" and "controlled substance," letting one imagine the worst.
"You take out the health-care industry, you can't drive, you can't work with machinery, you're not going to be able to work with money -- there's probably not a whole lot of options left," said John McCullough, a former staff lawyer for the Council on Crime and Justice in Minnesota.
The Peace Corps is out, too, at least for a year after any drug incident -- conviction or not -- when applicants are ineligible. After that the record is merely tarnished beside a giant stack of qualified applicants.
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