A cousin of mine is applying locally for the police academy.  He approached me with a dilema.  

To give you some background, he graduated with honors from UF.  He's a kind, ethical and compassionate guy and I believe he would be an outstanding officer.  However, in his younger years, he tried pot a couple of times.  He was never a serious user, but he dabbled.  How should he approach this in his interviews?  Should he not even apply?  Thank you in advance for you input and I hope this line of questioning does not offend as this was not my intent.  Thanks again.  

Be absolutely truthful in stating the he has tried pot.

I am working on my background app. for the academy as we speak. The directer told us to be absolutly truthful as this was whats used on your polygraph exam. She said that as long as you hadnt used pot within the last three years you would be ok....but certain other hard drugs were immediate disqualifiers.

As someone said, minor offenses are expected, but the truth is also expected.  What kind of cop would someone be if they started off their career by lying.  You will fail a polygraph if you lie even slighty, be honest.  Good luck

Oh fuck everyone's done it. Maybe it'll give him an edge in identifying the smell or look in the bag on a bust. He should do it they're not gonna give a shit if he did it when he was 15 or 16 years old.

Most PD's have a threshhold for pot use. Ive heard Kali is less than 100 uses and your ok. Other states are much lower. With my experiance marijuana is something that you can tell them about and still get hired. Other drug use like cocaine, lsd, meth, and your out.