Pubdate: Sun, 28 Oct 2007
Source: Independent on Sunday (UK)
Copyright: Independent Newspapers Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.independent.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/208
Authors: Marie Woolf, Brian Brady and Jonathan Owen
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?207 (Cannabis - United Kingdom)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy)

EIGHTEEN BRITISH SOLDIERS A WEEK TEST POSITIVE FOR DRUG USE

Eighteen British servicemen a week are testing positive for drug use, 
according to new figures from the Ministry of Defence.

The use of cocaine has trebled since the start of the Iraq war in 
2003, and the drug is now found in the majority of those soldiers who 
fail drugs tests.

More than 1,500 forces personnel (almost 1 per cent of soldiers in 
the Army) have tested positive for drugs since the beginning of 2006 
- - 80 per cent of whom were using class A drugs - according to 
statistics from the MoD's random drug testing programme.

The number of British Army personnel testing positive for drugs rose 
from 518 in 2003 to 769 in 2006 - a 48 per cent increase. Cocaine 
accounted for 423 failed tests, far ahead of cannabis (221) and Ecstasy (95).

Although the MoD is quick to claim that drug taking is not 
widespread, up to 90 per cent of recruits have used drugs before 
enlisting, and the increased affordability of cocaine has brought it 
well within the price range of soldiers.

But soldiers who take drugs are often using them to self-medicate and 
escape an uncomfortable and dangerous reality where death is ever 
present, say addiction experts.

"Soldiers are in a particularly difficult situation - we are talking 
about people going out to fight wars, and we have to be sympathetic 
to the immense stress that they are under," says Robert Lefever, 
director of Promis, one of Britain's longest-established addiction 
treatment centres.

"There will be some who take drugs as a way of dealing with the 
pressures that they face, not simply to get high. Soldiers are having 
a bad time at the moment and deserve more support and understanding."

According to the MoD, since the start of 2006 the Army has had 1,397 
positive drug tests and the highest percentage of hard drugs (80 per 
cent), while only 88 Navy personnel have tested positive (76 per cent 
for class A drugs) and only 27 Royal Air Force personnel (67 per cent 
for class A drugs).

The tests are carried out while soldiers are back at base in the UK, 
Cyprus or Germany, and a failed test usually means instant dismissal 
from the forces.

An MoD spokesman said that drug use in the armed services was far 
lower than in the population at large, with rates of service 
personnel testing positive for drugs at 0.7 per cent compared with 
more than 5 per cent in civilian workplace drug-testing programmes.

But Professor Neil McKeganey from Glasgow University's Centre for 
Drug Misuse Research, says that the stress of fighting will lead to 
escalating levels of drug use. "The much greater proportion of 
military personnel now who will have had recent conflict experience 
or be en route into those situations will almost certainly mean there 
are increased levels of drug use," he says. "It has historically been 
a way in which serving personnel have sought to cope with the stress 
and strains of such conflict situations."

The Tory MP and former soldier Patrick Mercer said the figures 
suggested the forces were reflecting trends in drug use within 
society at large. "What the latest figures mean is that the Army is 
reflecting what is going on in the rest of the community," he said. 
"But you cannot get away from the fact that hard drug use is more 
prevalent because of the sort of experiences that soldiers are having 
in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"They are facing very difficult situations and then they are being 
given less and less time for 'decompression' before they have to go 
back into theatre. I commanded a regiment eight years ago, and we had 
our share of drug problems. But in all that time we had about 25 
positive tests for soft drugs and only one or two for class A substances." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake