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DoD, the people at MEPS, and even your recruiter only know what you tell them. Trust me when I say, they don’t have the resources, financially or otherwise, to actually find out what has been going on in your life medically or even drug abuse wise.</p>
<p>The first thing a recruiter told me when I sat down for ‘the talk’ before going to MEPS (Military Enlistment Processing Station - where you go through the whole medical screening, take your ASVAB, and that whole jazz) was, “Whatever they ask you, the answer is ‘No’, understand? Have you ever done drugs? No. Even if you’ve just tried weed once. Have you ever had a surgery? I don’t care if you’ve had a double bypass, the answer is no.”</p>
<p>Honestly, when you’re 17-18 years old, and you answer no to every question like it, they typically don’t even blink. Yes, there’s a BI, but that doesn’t encompass medical history, only family and financial (i.e. do you have insurmountable debt which may be a reflection of bad character or do you or a close relative hold dual citizenship or other national citizenship, which may show a conflict of allegiances). By 17, I had broken 3 bones in my hand, had a concussion, and had leg surgery when I was like 1 year old (long story about something cutting into my leg and almost bleeding out because it wasn’t found out till overnight, which interestingly to this day has left about 1/4-1/2" scars running across both of my calf - and btw, then you’re going through the medical exam, you strip naked and have a one-on-one with a medical doctor there. He didn’t ask a single question about my scars). I had never done drugs, so at least I didn’t have to lie about that. I was in and out of MEPS (along with the 1000+ others that same day) like it was a (albeit, all day) piece of cake. In fact, I remember that my blood pressure was really high when they first took it (a possible DQ), but they were like, “Uh, go ahead and do your physical exam, and then come back and we’ll try again.” I came back a second time and they said it was still a little high, so they had me wait about 10 more minutes before doing it a third time. By that point I wasn’t sure if my BP had actually gone down or if the guy just passed me because he was tired of me coming back. For some reason I feel the latter.</p>
<p>Long story short, seriously, if they want you over whomever else, for whatever reason, and you tell your recruiter that you’ve done x amount of drugs and have x health problems, they will most likely coach you on skimping about those details when it comes times to swear an Oath of Enlistment. You really think 99% of 17 y/o athletically active males haven’t broken at least 1 bone in that lifetime thus far? I don’t, but I’ll bet you that’s what the paperwork at MEPS would tell you. Unless you’ve got something completely serious, or obvious, and you’re nice and young, they won’t be turning you away. True story.</p>