Another criminal background question

[DSMRoxyCat]

Hey this is my first post. I was recently offered admission into a clinical psych psyd program (my first choice, super excited!)

I am a little nervous about the background checks that the school will do soon as well as the internship sites etc. I got a possession of marijuana citation when I was 18. It was decriminalized in my state at the time, do it was treated like a minor traffic violation. I saw a judge and was ordered to pay a fine.

Is there anyway that this could disqualify me from matriculating or matching in the future? What about licensure? I know there was similar posts in the past, but I couldn't find any that were drug related but not technically a crime.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

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[StellaB]

Obviously none of us will know for certain since we aren't administrators at your school, but personally I would not worry about this. I have met students at reputable programs with misdemeanors, and it sounds like this didn't even reach that level. Because it was decriminalized, you have a reasonable explanation for not disclosing the offense earlier. That said, you will want to discuss this with your mentor and follow their advice about future disclosures, specifically whether it should be made ahead of time. Some sites (e.g. forensic, government jobs) may consider the non-disclosure a red flag, meaning you might want to be upfront about it while applying to prac/internship.

 

[EmotRegulation]

Was your citation in the same state as your program? Some background checks are more focused on in-state issues....background checks vary widely in what sources they pull from. How old are you now?

(I don't think this will be an issue. That said, each program and site--practicum, internship--can make it's own rules. I personally wouldn't want to be a part of a program that restricted training for something like this.)