Middle-aged adults are binge-drinking and using weed at record levels according to the New York Times, in a recent study. What is the catalyst here? Are people just burned out and over it? If people are hitting the bottle and turning to marijuana as a means to escape life? Or did being stuck at home during COVID lead people to start exploring other recreational hobbies? Whatever the reason, the trend of binging and boozing can affect your security clearance.
Lindy Kyzer:
Okay, I got a hot take on this, Sean. So I was just talking to a friend about this. I watched Oppenheimer and then that required me to read the book and the biography, and it seemed like everybody back then in the 1950s was drunk all the time too. So is this just cycle through?
Sean Bigley:
The nineties clothing and hairstyles are coming back now. My kids are into that. My daughter decided she wanted the Full House hairstyle. We’re having a little difficulty recreating that one 30 years later.
Lindy Kyzer:
I was… Yeah, where was I? Some high-end… Anthropologie or whatever. I can’t even pronounce it. Whatever that store is where all those hot people shop. They had jumpers, like my 1990s jumper. I was like, “Come on, man. I could just go back and resurrect that.” But anyway, I got way off-topic, but I was trying to wrap my head around this. Are we actually drinking more? Are we just more self-aware of it? Do we just talk about everything more? See, I do kind of appreciate the 1950s, Sean, people could just bottle up their problems, and they didn’t have to talk about it. Now we’re all like, “Oh, I drink too much and all my drugs.” I don’t know. I don’t know the answer.
I do think it is an issue that we’re seeing. I think we’re seeing more employment-related issues around it. More people losing jobs potentially with a tie-in to alcohol consumption, and misuse of drugs clearly is going to come up in more security clearance denials and revocations. It’s hitting more folks of different ages. We’ve talked before about how age is definitely a mitigating factor when it comes to a lot of issues around alcohol consumption and drugs. Harder to mitigate if you’re in your forties and you get a bunch of DUIs.
From a societal perspective, I was trying to wrap my head around this topic and see if it really was, but I’ve got Oppenheimer on the brain, and it just seemed like they drank a lot of cocktails back then, Sean. So I’m not sure.
Sean Bigley:
Here’s what I found interesting, because I was thinking similar thoughts in the sense that it does seem historically at least, alcohol use ebbs and flows. There are some generations where it seems to be more of a thing and others where it’s less of a thing. I think more so recently with this renewed focus on health. One thing that I found really, really telling is there was a Gallup poll that was done recently that says that the share of people age 18 to 34 who don’t drink at all is up to 38% from 28% in the last two decades.
So, it seems like the numbers are almost moving in different directions. We have young people who are drinking less, middle-aged people who are drinking apparently more. I’m not really sure about the marijuana. I do know in my law practice, I was really surprised at the number of older people who are using marijuana and who would call my office with a security clearance denial or revocation because they were 55-years-old and decided to start trying marijuana on a lark.
So I don’t know what the weed trends are doing, but I certainly know as it pertains to alcohol, it seems like we have these numbers moving in different directions. And I don’t know why. To your point, and we’ve talked about this before, the ageism issue is a big deal when it comes to security clearances. If you’re 22-years-old and you’re applying for a clearance and you’ve used weed and been drunk a number of times in the past few years, you may get a pass for that because of your age, as long as you can prove that you’ve turned a corner. But if you’re in your thirties, forties, fifties, and you’re doing it: different ball of wax. Even if you’ve done it once or twice; we’ve seen lots of people who have done marijuana one time in their forties, and they’ve had their clearance revoked because of it.
It’s weird. I don’t know what the reason is, but I do think that it’s something clearance holders who are mid-career need to be alert to and aware of. This is a creeping problem, and if you are somebody who feels like your drinking is getting a little out of control, that’s something that I wouldn’t write off. And then certainly with the marijuana, which we’ve talked about a lot, that can be still one and done. So, you really, really want to stay away from that.
Lindy Kyzer:
And so I have to caveat: the 1950s, they could do what they wanted. They were building an atomic bomb. There’s no judgment. I think it does tie into productivity and affecting your day-to-day life. So I think there is some issue around the government is not going to scrutinize your alcohol consumption unless it is affecting your life. And the clear flag that we see around the security clearance process is DUIs. If you’re getting a DUI, if you’ve gotten even a single DUI, that triggers, “Hey, let’s look into this.” It’s not necessarily going to result in a denial or revocation, but they’re saying, “Hey, you’re drinking enough that it’s impacting your judgment.”
I think that’s the bleedover with COVID too, right? More people are working from home or at home. We don’t have those clear distinctions like, “Hey, I’m working.” I mean, case in point: I’m just like, they’re having a cocktail party at ClearanceJobs at DHI, our parent company, right now, which I’m not participating in, Sean, because I’m talking to you. But I’m like, “Whoa, we’re having cocktail parties at 1:00 PM on a Friday, I guess.” That is totally a COVID thing. We were not doing that pre-COVID. The bleedover issue is real. And so, I think if that becomes an issue where people are questioning your judgment because you’re on a conference call and you look a little tipsy, that’s going to be an issue. I don’t know.
Sean Bigley:
Yeah. Well, it’s five o’clock somewhere, and I guess we know where now. At ClearanceJobs. But I think to your point about working from home though, that’s actually, in my experience at least, a big factor here. And without that sort of accountability of having to report into an office and knowing that, “Okay, people are going to be watching me, and if I’m hungover or I wreak of marijuana, someone’s going to pick up on that.” That’s something that I think is a real element to this equation, and we’ve seen this in other contexts too, particularly problem gambling.
I know that’s something that you and I have talked about previously with online sports betting and how that exploded during COVID when people were sitting at home; they were bored; they were staring at walls all day and going, “I got to get something to entertain me.” And now all of a sudden, a few years later, they’re in five figures of debt, and they’re trying to claw their way out of it before the government figures out that that’s what happened, and they’re at risk of losing their clearance.
Regardless of the issue, I just think the takeaway here that I would want to communicate to folks is, if you are having problems binge-drinking or you are having problems extracting yourself from marijuana use, it’s not too late to go and get help. And it’s something that I’ve found even now in 2023, there’s still this kind of continued resistance and fear on the part of clearance holders where they say, “Well, I’ve got it under control. I’m white-knuckling my way through it. Why am I going to go get help, because that then is going to be the catalyst that alerts somebody that there’s a problem?”
But the reality is, white-knuckling your way through it rarely turns out well. More often than not, something happens, that DUI or public intoxication arrest or showing up to work hungover or whatever the case may be, where you lose control of the narrative. And so, if that’s the case and you’re just then starting to get help, it’s often too late. Whereas if you’re doing it preemptively, proactively, you’re going out and getting help… Yes, at some point, the government’s going to find out about it; your employer’s going to find out about it, but they’re going to take a lot more favorable view of you being the one that told them and you saying, “Hey, I went out, and I’m proactively getting the help that I need,” versus finding out in some other way.
Lindy Kyzer:
Yeah, I mean, that was a big takeaway for me from this is just saying I think we need to have almost an awareness campaign similar to what the intelligence community and national security community has done around the mental health issue, where we know data and research says they’ve done a great job of destigmatizing getting counseling, seeking proactive mental health. But I think a lot of these other issues like alcohol consumption or even prior drug use, people still try to sweep under the rug and say, “No, anything that you have a problem with, whether it’s finances or alcohol or drugs, proactive steps are always the best mitigating factor, whether you’re an applicant or you’re a security-clearance holder.”
And also just take heed: if people are telling you that your alcohol consumption is an issue, or, “Hey, you have a bigger issue with drugs than you think you do,” you should probably put a stop to it before you consider applying for a government job. I mean, listen to that, because I think we’re not as self-aware as we think we are. And so, that’s a sign and getting help is the best thing that folks can do.
Sean Bigley:
Self-awareness: name of the game.
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