Pubdate: Sun, 09 Jun 2013
Source: Gazette, The (Colorado Springs, CO)
Copyright: 2013 The Gazette
Contact: http://www.gazette.com/sections/opinion/submitletter/
Website: http://www.gazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/165
Author: Tom Roeder

CIVIC BOOSTERS FEAR LEGALIZED POT'S IMPACT ON MILITARY BASES

Civic leaders worried about retail marijuana sales in Colorado say
it's a matter of perception.

They don't expect pot to pour onto local military bases when retail
sales of recreational reefer start in 2014. They do expect states
competing for increasingly scarce defense spending to blow smoke about
Colorado's permissive policy in a bid to pull troops and programs from
the state.

With massive defense cuts looming, where there's marijuana smoke,
there's worry.

"It's not always good being first," said Andy Merritt, head of
military affairs for the Colorado Springs Regional Business Alliance.

Military leaders - active duty and retired - have been vocal on the
marijuana issue. Fort Carson's Maj. Gen. Paul LaCamera has been
telling audiences and Colorado Springs Mayor Steve Bach that legalized
pot is "against good order and discipline."

Sources at the post say they haven't seen an increase in marijuana
incidents since Colorado voters legalized recreational marijuana
possession in November. Army-wide, the number of soldiers sent to
substance abuse counseling for marijuana hit a peak of 3,019 in 2009
before falling in recent years to 2,465 in 2012.

The same is true at Peterson Air Force Base and the Air Force Academy,
where officials say legalized pot has posed no particular problem.

Pot may be legal in Colorado, but in the military it's still as
illicit as it was under the Reagan Administration. Troops can face up
to two years in prison for possession less than an ounce of marijuana
under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. More marijuana, or
distributing pot, means more time behind bars.

The stiff penalties are meant to convey a simple message.

"Marijuana use is incompatible with military service," said retired
Air Force Gen. Stephen Lorenz, of Colorado Springs.

Air Force Academy Col. Paul Barzler - the academy's top lawyer - said
the Air Force and other services do more than other employers to keep
their workplaces drug-free.

Airmen and soldiers live in a system where a random drug test can be
called at any hour. A whiff of pot smoke could force a whole unit to
take what some soldiers call the "whiz quiz."

And the test result alone can lead to criminal charges, Barzler said.
The testing procedure is elaborate, documented and seldom fails to
hold up in court, he said.

An airman from the Peterson Air Force Base office of staff judge
advocate Lt. Col. Ira Perkins was ordered to give a sample Friday morning.

"It's truly random," Perkins said.

And, Perkins noted, random testing added to massive consequences for
getting caught serve has a huge deterrent for troops.

So, why is the military community so worried about retail
pot?

Easy availability could put more pot in the ranks, commanders
say.

Skip Morgan, a Colorado Springs attorney who represents military
clients at courts-martial, said the fear is valid.

"Ready availability of marijuana will certainly impact the Army and
the Air Force to some extent," Morgan said.

Colorado Springs is now mulling whether to allow retail marijuana
sales in the city. Mayor Steve Bach, citing military and other
concerns, has pushed for a ban. The City Council, though, appears to
be leaning toward allowing retail sales, because a majority of city
voters backed Amendment 64 in November.

Retired Army Lt. Gen. Ed Anderson has been one of those pushing for a
ban.

He said the ban would serve notice to Pentagon planners that Colorado
Springs supports the military's mission.

The argument over marijuana and the military comes at a crucial time
for Fort Carson. As part of an Army plan to shrink its ranks by 80,000
soldiers by 2020, Fort Carson could lose as many as 8,000 soldiers.
The Army has also said it could decide to add 3,000 soldiers to Fort
Carson by 2020 and make steeper cuts elsewhere.

Anderson says Colorado's decision to break with federal laws on the
legality of marijuana could play a role in that decision and in future
cuts, driven by a plan that will shrink the Pentagon's budget by $1
trillion over 10 years. Anderson explained that military leaders
looking at cuts in communities search for "discriminators" - factors
that put one place below another on the list.

"The discriminator could be pot," he said.

Merritt, with the Regional Business Alliance, agreed, saying defense
contractors are edgy about legalized pot, too. Contractors dealing
with top-secret government projects in Colorado Springs fear that
their employees could lose security clearances for pot use, Merritt
said.

Legalized recreational pot is one more step in more than a decade of
gradually relaxed pot rules in Colorado. The state has long had legal
medical marijuana, with dispensaries all over the Pikes Peak region.
The November approval of Amendment 64 further relaxed the law - giving
every adult in the state the right to carry up to an ounce of
marijuana and paving the way for retail sales. So far, though, the
evolving policies haven't led to a wave of marijuana trouble for the
military.

"We've seen no uptick in our airmen's use of drugs," Perkins said of
Peterson, echoing other area bases.

The worries over retail marijuana sales haven't hit Congress, where
the Defense Department budget was being argued last week.

"I have not heard that concern expressed here in Washington," said
Colorado Springs Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn.
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MAP posted-by: Matt