Felony drug possession charges expunged

Published Jan 31, 2010

7 Posts

To start this post, I would like to say that I am not asking legal advice, just wondering if anybody has encountered somebody in a similar situation, and could tell me what the outcome was.

I will be blunt; 2 years ago I was caught with steroids and marijuana. I was charged with felony possession of a controlled substance (steroids), and misdemeanor possession (weed). This was in michigan, and the charges were expunged from my public record because I did a deferral type program (i was under 21 at the time) and once I successfully made it through probation/did community service/took drug classes etc, and proved my rehabilitation, the charges were "hidden" so to speak.

Now that that terrible chapter of my life is over, I have moved on completely and I figured that it would never come back to haunt me, but as I was starting to do the paperwork to apply for licensure today (I graduate in a few months from an ABSN program) I found out that even though it is off the public record, I still have to check "yes" that it happened/give details of the event etc to the MI state board and they could deny my application for my license. This is extremely scary and nerve racking for me, as I figured that part of my life was well behind me. Now considering the nature of the crimes (a controlled substance felony in particular), and the recency of it (only 2 years ago, even though it seem like such a distance part of my past), I am afraid this will hinder me from getting a job in nursing and all my hard work will be for nothing

Has anybody dealt with having to expose previously hidden expunged charges to the state BON? Or dealt with felony drug possession charges and the BON? Again my only obstacle is the license application with the BON, as no hospital or potential hire will ever see that it occurred. Unfortunately this obstacle now seems monumental.