Pubdate: Wed, 27 Mar 2002 Source: Denver Rocky Mountain News (CO) Copyright: 2002, Denver Publishing Co. Contact: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/371 Author: Robert Weller Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing) AIR FORCE ACADEMY INCREASES DRUG TESTS 38 Cadets Have Been Ensnared In Scandal AIR FORCE ACADEMY -- The Air Force Academy has stepped up drug testing and is putting more classroom emphasis on ethics amid the biggest drug scandal in the school's 47-year history. Thirty-eight cadets out of 4,300 have been implicated in the scandal that began in December 2000. In addition, six cadets have been charged or convicted of crimes such as larceny and sodomy, including the former president of the class of 2003, who is accused of stealing $9,000 from a class activity fund. Academy officials have no simple explanation for the rash of crime, which has extended into this month with the arrest of a student on charges of raping a female cadet. "We rely on the American people to send us their best. Every now and then we don't get the right people," said Col. Mark Hyatt, director of the Academy Center for Character Development. The drug scandal -- involving mainly the use of Ecstasy and marijuana -- is the biggest problem for the academy since 105 cadets accused of cheating resigned in 1965. Academy officials have increased random drug tests in which cadets are summoned to the clinic and told to urinate into a cup. In addition, the academy is working ethics lessons into courses across the curriculum. Of the 38 cadets implicated, eight were court-martialed and seven of those went to prison. The U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., has had three courts-martial in the past decade. A cadet was charged in a drug case last year and two were accused of stealing more than $40,000 in cadet-store merchandise in 2000. In 1996, the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., went through problems like the Air Force Academy's. "The kids that are coming out of these public high schools don't know what honor is," said retired Lt. Gen. A.P. Clark, a former Air Force Academy superintendent. "They have quite an adjustment to make when they come to an academy that has such high standards of integrity and ethics."