Logical Mike wrote:If you were working in a field, let's say you were a civil engineer. Then as you hit your 30's you realized your true calling was the medical field, how does one migrate his career?
Apply for public education in another city. The nationwide register re-checks were not quite as ubiquotous, so you had a good chance of getting higher educaton free again. Failing that, you could get middle professional education for free. Also, the hospital might send you for re-education if you made it as a nurse into it initially but later tried to push for a doctor.
Logical Mike wrote:How was homosexuality handled?
Male, criminalized in 1934. Female, status undefined - depended on the willingness of local authorities, local customs etc. For more, see here
Communism and homosexuality
I'm not sure there was active reporting of lesbians to the police, since no legal basis existed for it; there is contradicting information on whether they faced penalties or not, though it's possible that in Stalin's time they did (not criminal, like males, but psychiatric).
Logical Mike wrote:If I were your neighbor, and you overheard me discussing things that were illegal, what was the proper manner to report this to the authorities? What would be the reprecussions?
A call to the police, a call to the KGB or a written note to either would be appropriate. Reprecussions depend on the era. In Stalin's times, you'd get a criminal case on your name and a trial. Later, mostly nothing. What are "illegal things"? Joking about leaders is not "illegal". If you overheard your neighbor planning a crime, that would be different of course. The common cases of "reporting" included people with a material interest reporting their neighbors planning crimes whereas they did nothing in reality. In Stalin's time that'd be enough for a cointoss (50-50) probability of landing in jail. Later, the prosecutorial system was reformed so that without "undeniable evidence" a case would simply never reach trial at all; meaning that any report that would not be substantiated by clear material evidence would not reach trial.
Logical Mike wrote:Was marijunia as freely available as it was in states?
Marijuana was never a popular drug in Russia. In fact, drug addiction was nigh absent in the USSR. The common problems were alcoholism and, during the last years, a rise of toxicomania among the youth. Drugs like marijuana, or heavier substances like heroine, cocaine were not present in any quantities whatsoever, as far as I know.