Screened out of background investigation

I have been looking for a job in law enforcement. I recently received my first actual rejection letter from a law enforcement agency and I figured I should look for some input on this.

I have a 4 year degree in criminal justice from a well known school. Zero criminal history, some minor traffic tickets and collisions spread out over the course of my driving history. Never used an illegal drug in my life, no firearms violations, overall I have a pretty clean record.

I have applied to a few different agencies, mostly out of state. Some of them I could not make it to the tests. I did take suffolk county and could not make it to the physical test due to an injury at work, submitted a temporary declination and still haven't heard back from them but I've since decided that I need to move out of NY anyway. The agency that rejected me is out of state.

For this agency I passed the written and physical tests, attended an interview, took a psychological battery and a polygraph. I was told that everything came back with good results and my detective verbally indicated that I should expect to be invited back to a final interview. The only matter that seemed to present any trouble was my current line of employment: I work in the music industry. My detective grilled me on drug questions and I was asked about drug use on the polygraph. I have never used an illegal drug in my life (nor sold or transported or anything) and I explained that to the detective and answered as such on the polygraph. My detective seemed unwilling to accept that someone who works in the music industry could possibly have never at least tried marijuana.

Upon being asked, I truthfully explained that working in my industry I see drug use all the time. My detective asked me why I still work in the field and never changed jobs. I explained that this is how I make my living, that to change jobs would result in a drastic and unsustainable reduce in pay, and that I currently am trying to change jobs by getting into law enforcement, which is what I wanted to do before I ever got into the music industry in the first place. Also that, being in New York, changing jobs wouldn't even make a difference because pretty much everyone in NYC smokes pot at least on occasion anyway.

When I got the letter notifying me that I had been removed from the application process, I called my detective and politely asked if he could offer any explanation for why I was dropped. He stated that he could not give me a reason why. I asked if he could offer any advice for applying to other agencies. He indicated that I should change my job.

This is where I see a problem. Here I am, with a clean record, being 100% truthful in my application, choosing every day of my life to make the right decisions and not engage in any conduct that should give me any trouble getting into law enforcement, proving to everyone that knows me that even in the face of easy access and constant temptation I am able to do the right thing, and it has been indicated that the reason I am unfit for law enforcement is because I work in the music industry? Even though I have never been involved in illegal drug use and there is zero evidence in existence to suggest that I ever have?

Does anyone have anything to say about this?

I shouldn't have to change jobs before I can... change jobs. The whole point is that I'm TRYING to change my job and this particular agency just denied me an opportunity to do so based on guilt by association. Honestly, when the detective was grilling me about marijuana I felt like it would have been easier to lie and say 'Yeah, I tried it once, experimentally" just to get him off my back about the fact that I have NEVER even tried it.