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ADF staff test positive
Samantha Maiden | The Advertiser | April 17, 2006

MILITARY recruits are flouting the Australian Defence Force's "zero tolerance" policy on drugs as the Howard Government considers allowing former marijuana users to join the armed services.

Defence Minister Brendan Nelson confirmed yesterday that 24 defence force personnel were facing disciplinary action after random drug tests on more than 1000 army, navy and air force members late last year.

Thousands more soldiers and sailors can expect to face random tests this year for party drugs such as cannabis, ecstasy and amphetamines.

Despite the findings, Dr Nelson is considering proposals to relax the rules for former marijuana users to join the military, admitting an automatic ban on former drug users might not make sense because "40 to 45 per cent" of adults are known to have tried drugs.

Opposition defence spokesman Robert McClelland last night backed plans to dump the ban, saying many MPs would fail the same test.

Dr Nelson is also considering proposals to relax the recruitment rules for overweight and asthmatic applicants to help address the significant shortfall in recruitment targets.

The defence force fell 1000 short of its recruitment target last year, and the force has warned that on current trends the Australian military will shrink from 52,000 personnel to 48,500 by 2010 despite government plans to boost numbers to 55,000.

Dr Nelson stressed that once recruits were accepted into the armed forces, drug users could face dismissal.

"The ADF maintains a strict zero-tolerance approach to the use of illicit substances by all defence personnel, and this will not change," he said.

"It may, however, be appropriate to consider whether potential new recruits should be prevented from joining the ADF because they admit to having tried illicit substances.

"There will be no relaxing of the rules once someone joins the ADF, but should a potential recruit who honestly admits to once trying drugs be penalised and prevented from pursuing a career in the armed forces?"

The worst offenders in the recent random drug tests were army recruits. However, some sailors on HMAS Darwin, HMAS Stirling, HMAS Kuttabal, HMAS Melbourne and HMAS Cerberus also tested positive.

Proving the random drug testing had no respect for rank, navy commanders and commodores, and army captains, majors and a colonel were tested. But the majority of personnel who returned positive results were navy seamen and army privates.

Mr McClelland said yesterday he backed moves to relax the regulations, which often rule out candidates who honestly admit they have experimented with drugs in the past.

"Clearly, there has to be a zero-tolerance approach for our armed services, but I would wonder, quite frankly, how many members of parliament would be able to answer the question that they've never tried some form of illicit substance in their past," he said.

"It may be those who don't have the integrity to admit trying it who benefit from the current rules."

Asked whether he had smoked marijuana in the past, Mr McClelland said: "I won't go there."

"It seems only American presidential candidates are obliged to answer that question. I do think, on any reasonable analysis, the level of drug-taking in our armed forces is extremely rare, and Australia can be pretty reassured by that."

The random drug testing results, which cover the period from October last year to January 31, follow widespread concern about drug abuse in the military.

Three elite RAAF aircrew at the Canberra-based 34 VIP squadron tested positive for drugs last year, and were issued with termination notices. Doubts were raised over the legality of the force's random drug testing two years ago after a Darwin magistrate found it was unlawful.

The ruling prompted a re-examination of the drug testing rules and new laws were introduced in parliament.

In one notorious incident, a drug-testing raid on Darwin's Robertson Barracks in October 2003 found 47 of the 97 soldiers tested positive for cannabis, amphetamines and opiates.

Two years ago, six of nine army cadets caught up in a drugs scandal at the nation's elite Royal Military College, Duntroon, tested positive for drugs after several confessed to using speed and ecstasy.

In 2004, 18 soldiers at Lavarack Barracks in Townsville were tested for illegal drugs, with nine returning positive results. One soldier was charged with possessing ecstasy at that time.

Hundreds of sailors at HMAS Cerberus naval base were placed under police surveillance for potential drug abuse in 2004 after navy chief Vice Admiral Chris Ritchie named the sailors as the worst drug offenders in the service.

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Buzzby

When are these people going to realize that using illicit drugs recreationally differs from using alcohol only in the fact that they're illegal and usually less dangerous? Armies used to pass out amphetamines to troops. I believe the Air Force still gives them to pilots.

They have trouble finding recruits who have never tried illicit drugs because illicit drugs are everywhere!

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MrIMStoned

"... illicit drugs are everywhere!"

Let the good times roll.

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"In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality, was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense. And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right. For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable what then?"

Higher Logic

On the other hand, Israel has been known to give marijuana to their soldiers.

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