Want to apply to medical school and eventually become a spine surgeon i have a past felony drug conviction for manufacturing and delivering cocaine and criminal conspiracy should i not even waste my time or is worth my time to pursue this career as a surg

While : While a clean record is not an absolute requirement to become a surgeon, it certainly helps. There are several obstacles to becoming a surgeon with a felony conviction. First, you would have to convince a medical school admissions committee that you have the character and traits they are looking for in an applicant. At the end of medical school, you would need to convince a orthopaedic or neurosurgery residency program that you have the character and traits they are looking for. As both orthopaedic and neurosurgery training programs are extremely competitive, this history does put you at a disadvantage. For both admissions processes, it is typical to ask about any prior convictions. Even if you were to navigate medical school and residency successfully, you would still need to become licensed by the state you want to practice in, and obtain certification by the drug enforcement agency (dea), and possibly by the state controlled substances board. The dea and states may have specific restrictions preventing licensure with a prior felony drug-related conviction. Before proceeding, i would recommend that you check with the dea and with whichever state you want to possibly practice in about their laws regarding licensure in your circumstances.

Hard to say: A felony conviction, while it might not completely rule you out (if you have great mcat scores and overall grades) from med school, would be a major obstacle to a surgical residency (they are conservative), but a huge obstacle would be licensing. I would recommend inquiries to your state licensing board as to how they would view it. If they say no, check another state. If many are no, its a problem.