Employment-related roadblocks a drug crime conviction can raise

Being convicted of a drug crime can impact a person’s life in many ways. One of the big ones is that it can have employment-related implications. There are many employment-related roadblocks a person could face as a result of a criminal conviction, such as a drug crime conviction.

For one, there are certain jobs that state law outright bars individuals convicted of certain crimes from being in. Recently, some changes were made here in Illinois that relaxed one of these job restrictions on individuals convicted of a drug crime.

This restriction involves employment with park districts and schools. Previously, individuals with drug crime convictions simply were not allowed to hold such jobs here in Illinois. Under the changes, which took effect at the start of this year, such individuals can now hold such jobs once seven years have gone by since the completion of their sentence.

This was one of several changes to employment-related laws connected to criminal convictions that took effect at the start of this year in the state. Some of the others regard another of the roadblocks that can come up for a person convicted of a crime: challenges with getting an occupational license. One of the changes relaxed the restrictions on health care licenses for individuals convicted of certain crimes. Another put some restrictions on how past convictions can be considered when deciding whether to grant a person certain occupational licenses.

One wonders what overall impacts the changes to Illinois job and profession license restriction laws regarding criminal convictions will end up having.

Now, just because a person is in a field where there are no state restrictions for working in it or getting licensed in it with a criminal conviction doesn’t mean that a drug crime conviction wouldn’t pose any employment-related problems for the individual. This is because some of the potential employment roadblocks of a drug conviction are more general in nature. For example, a drug crime conviction, and the effects of the sentences a person gets for it, can make keeping a job or getting hired for a job harder.

The major employment effects a drug crime conviction can have, and the significant impacts such effects can have on a person’s life, are among the reasons why having strong defense guidance can be so critical for a person when facing drug crime charges.