I'm a current nursing student here (though I don't have any substance abuse problems, so who the hell am I to answer this) and thought I'd give my two cents (bc let's face it everyone here is dying to hear my opinion). Before being offered a seat in a nursing program your university will give you a packet to fill out asking: have you ever been convicted of a felony, do you have/have you ever been treated for a drug or alcohol problem, do you have any physical or mental disabilities that would prevent you from fulfilling your duties etc. This packet it sent to each school from the corresponding state board of nursing and it would be considered falsification of a government document if you were to lie, so you would have to answer "yes" to the drug question. You would then be given a chance to plead your case (e.g. tell them you're clean) and your acceptance to the program would be at the board and the university's discretion. As far as temptation during your clinical rotations go, students generally DO NOT have access to controlled substances, and should your patient need a controlled substance, your instructor or another RN will be required to witness you give it to the patient, so you'd be safe there. As far as temptation is concerned post licensure, get a job as a dialysis nurse; these nurses rarely, if ever, administer narcotics, and indeed many recovered/recovering nurses end up working on dialysis for this reason.