Medical Previous, Dismissed, Marijuana Conviction - How should I handle with application?

[BC_89]

About 5 years ago I was arrested and charged with three marijuana related crimes: simple possession (misdemeanor), paraphernalia (misdemeanor), and intent to distribute (felony). I take full responsibility for these offenses and completed a diversionary program during which I pled guilty to the simple possession charge and the paraphernalia and intent to distribute charges were dropped. Upon completion of that program, my record was sealed and expunged.

Since then I have kept my nose completely clean and not had any other encounters with the law. How concerned should I be with regards to a future application?

If what you are really asking is do you need to divulge that information (albeit it was proclaimed expunged), then yes. The last thing you want is to work hard for a specific healthcare program only to have them find out you indeed had past felony and misdemeanor charges that you failed to reveal. If it was me, I would contact adcom of your institute(s) of choice and ask them what you're essentially asking on here.

You would come off that much more guilty if this was found on a background check without you bringing it to the table.

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[lord999]

recommended that while I should err on the side of disclosure especially to boards, assuming I make it that far, but to also not volunteer more information than needed.

There's threads on this in the main boards, but the tl;dr version is that even expunged records have to be disclosed in many states for professional licensure and expunged records are not hidden to them. For admission, the record is mixed, though AMCAS has explicitly changed the rule requiring report of an expunged misdemeanor in the last couple of years, you do not need to:

https://aamc-orange.global.ssl.fastly.net/production/media/filer_public/b2/23/b223c482-8ba3-44dd-bb1c-8835ac84f3e6/2020amcasapplicantguide-060419.pdf

Page 24: (Bolded Clause 2)
Misdemeanor
You must indicate if you have ever been convicted of, or pleaded guilty or no contest to, a misdemeanor crime, excluding (1) any offense for which you were adjudicated as a juvenile, (2) any convictions that have been expunged or sealed by a court, or (3) any misdemeanor convictions for which you completed any probation and for which the court dismissed the case (in states where applicable). You need not disclose any instance in which you: • Were arrested but not charged • Were arrested and charged, with the charges dropped • Were arrested and charged but found not guilty by a judge or jury • Were arrested and found guilty by a judge or jury, with the conviction overturned on appeal • Were arrested and found guilty but received an executive pardon...

By the way, if you are caught at saying no when the answer is yes given the rules, you should not think very highly of your prospects for application. So make sure your conviction is expunged.

Professional License:
Also, if you end up applying in AZ (no expungement for anything), MN (considers expunged records and will deny if caught without explanation/admission), FL (same as MN), or DC/VA/MD (similar to MN but with some AZ strictness) for a professional license, the way the law works there is that they will seek and consider expunged records. I recall that the forms explicitly state that even expunged convictions have to be listed. I can say though that all of those states take everything afterwards into consideration, and if the matter was in the past and stayed there, there won't be a serious problem.

DEA License:

SECTION II

Your DEA license, the expunged conviction won't affect that as long as you don't get a felony or repeated misdemeanors (the one you have is not sufficient for a denial if you are candid about it in your application form). They have reinterpreted marijuana convictions to not be sufficiently against the public interest as long as the behavior has no aggravating factors (this is a major change from the 1980s DEA).