Pubdate: Sat, 18 Mar 2000 Source: Scotsman (UK) Copyright: The Scotsman Publications Ltd 2000 Contact: http://www.scotsman.com/ Forum: http://www.scotsman.com/ Author: Jim McBeth Caption: American soldiers graduated from marijuana to cocaine during the Vietnam War, as many as 150,000 of the troops were users, thousands hopelessly addicted. Pictures: Rex Features. Pipe of peace: A GI smokes opium in a Vietnamese field DRUGS SQUADDIES SOMEWHERE in Bosnia, 1996; John, a wee guy from Castlemilk, Glasgow, is crouching by a wall with a gun in his hand and ecstasy in his system. He momentarily ponders how this might affect his ability to function as a soldier if someone starts shooting. Which is likely, but his "who cares?" attitude and the "cool" created by the drug, diminish his sense of responsibility. A few days before, a few miles away, three British soldiers died when their vehicle went over a land mine. In John's own words they were "killed in a shithole, where no one speaks English". He only ever wanted to learn a trade, to find a focus for a life which was largely without meaning, and escape his abusive old man. John certainly did not want to risk dying. Anywhere. The threat of being tested positive for drugs and the resulting "admin discharge" or SNLR - Services No Longer Required - being stamped on his papers does not seem such a big deal. The night before, a letter from home had arrived, with the ecstasy tablets - - UKP60 for ten - Sellotaped to the paper. "No-one checks mail, especially when you are overseas," he said. A few of his mates had "spilled" [taken] the tabs in the barracks. John and his comrades know that even if the medics take urine samples from every soldier in Bosnia, the "brass" will only test 20 per cent of them. The odds are good, worth the risk. And "eccies" take the edge off. John, 25, is a serving soldier and, apparently, one of a growing number who transfer their civilian youth culture of drug-taking into the military. The army says there is no problem. John tells a different story. Last week, at the Normandy barracks in Aldershot, the army town near London, the soldiers of B-Company of the Parachute Regiment were tested for Class A and B drugs. A-drugs relate to heroin, amphetamines or cocaine. The B-drugs are usually cannabis or ecstasy. Seven paras failed the tests. Their military careers are over. They join a list of almost 2,000 soldiers who have been discharged from the army in the past five years for similar offences. John is not surprised. He never saw any reason to stop taking drugs when he joined the army, but, once in uniform, the recreational use of drugs, which, he says, is "rife" was exacerbated by the FPB factor - Fear, Pressure, Boredom. "You try looking across fields, pretty much like the ones you see at home, for eight hours at a time, in the knowledge that some bastard might be out there with a gun," he said. "The fear is ever-present, the pressure constant and, despite yourself, boredom sets in." Yet the Ministry of Defence is adamant that there is no drug problem in the military. Compulsory testing was, it insists, introduced in 1995 to combat "a threat, not a problem". In 1994, shortly before its introduction, five members of the Scots Guards were found to have used cannabis and ecstasy. Since January 1995, when testing began, 1,759 soldiers have been discharged for drug misuse. A further 365 got off the hook because their sample showed "ambiguous traces". Another 70 soldiers refused to be tested. The MoD claims that the ratio of failed tests in comparison to the number of tests - 323,000 to date - is 0.6 per cent, which represents a far lower rate than would be found in civilians. AN MoD spokesman said: "The drug use in the army is smaller in cross-section percentage than any other facet of the community. If you took a similar group who were not in the armed services and tested them the difference would be massively higher." This may be true, but it remains a supposition on the part of the military. Three years ago, 22 soldiers in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders failed drugs test to give the Argylls the worst failure rate of any regiment in the army. It represented 5 per cent, which would look suspiciously normal for any control group. In 1995, 18 Royal Highland Fusiliers were discharged. The same year a fatal accident inquiry at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, into the suicide of a 19-year-old squaddie in the King's Own Scottish Borderers, heard that drug-taking was prevalent. The dead boy's mother told the sheriff that her son had only been in the army for four months before he died, but had told her that drugs were "readily available". In two separate episodes within the past three years, 25 members of the Black Watch have been thrown out of the army for taking drugs. In 1998, four privates of the Royal Scots were discharged, the same year that five serving British soldiers were jailed for their part in a major drug smuggling operation on the continent. However, the real problem of drug misuse in the army is not the perceived level of the problem which may exist now, but its potential to grow and the concomitant affect on efficiency and discipline. John has witnessed NCOs being "told to go and f* themselves" by "mellowed" squaddies. He said: "Discipline suffers. Sergeants shouting in your ear doesn't seem a big deal." Soldiers, ex-soldiers and sociologists are convinced the misuse of drugs in the army is merely a reflection of their growing misuse in society, which, statistically, is increasing. John said: "The evidence is there to see. In or out of the army. I see it with my own eyes. I have served in the UK, Canada, Germany, Italy and Bosnia. Drug use is everywhere. "Drugs are not just something soldiers misuse when they are off duty. They bring them back with them; their pals and relatives send them to them. The mail isn't checked." John has been tested three times during his career and, in spite of regularly using cannabis, ecstasy and, occasionally, cocaine and amphetamines, his record is clear. "The worst trouble I've got is fighting with another squaddie." It is common knowledge, he claims, that the army does not test all of the urine samples which are taken. "If you tested the whole regiment, which has been done in the past, it would take forever to analyse the samples," he said. "The tests usually come back in ten days; we know the big testing is a smother exercise; analysis is done on 20 per cent max." "Then you see the guys lining up at the Regimental Sergeant Major's office or trotting off to the CO or the Special Investigations Branch officers, the army's cops." John has been in the army for eight years and taken drugs for nine. "I took all the usual stuff before I joined and I never stopped. I still take drugs when I'm off-duty. My mates are all the same. Weekends, Wednesday and Thursday nights out - bevvy and drugs." According to John, the squaddies are exposed to the "homespun" lectures from officers about drugs, "which are rubbered [not listened to] big time." He added: "In spite of what they say publicly, the brass don't really want to know. It's easier to fudge it." The army claimed yesterday that this is not true, that there is "zero tolerance" of drug use among personnel, who carry deadly weapons and are often in charge of equipment worth millions. "If they are caught, they are out," said an MoD spokesman. He added: "We don't have a problem with drugs. In 1995, we took preventive, not reactive, action to combat a threat, not a problem. We could see the trend in society at large and we wanted to nip it in the bud. We have." However, a lot can happen in five years. Dr Alasdair Forsyth, a sociologist at Glasgow University who was involved in drug research for 13 years, said: "In terms of drugs, teenagers who use them in civilian life see no reason to stop if they join the army. "They are perhaps working class lads who have already been exposed to the culture and it's normal to them. There are two distinctive elements here. The first is the culture of drug-taking. The second is the use of drugs to solve problems such as stress or fear." John went on: "In the good old days of King and Country bullshit, guys joining the army probably expected to fight at some point. "But for a long time, peace-time soldiering was about learning a trade and taking part in the occasional game of soldiers. "Guys like me joined the army to get away from unemployment, family problems, a dead-end life, not to get killed in some shithole." INCREASINGLY, the modern soldier is being asked to go into war zones to fight or keep the peace. In a single generation, British soldiers have served in such places as Northern Ireland, the Falklands, the Gulf, Eastern Europe and Indonesia. Dr Forsyth added: "You can correlate drug use to this type of stress area and the use of drugs to relive it. "The definitive report is the Robins study of Vietnam, which established that the US had, literally, an army of 150,000 heroin users fighting in that conflict, of whom 40,000 were hopelessly addicted because of the cheapness and availability of the drug. "Remarkably, the research found that the majority stopped taking drugs when they got home and were relieved of the pressures of war. Only those from ghettos, where they encountered a fresh set of pressures, appeared to continue to take drugs. You see similarities emerging in the Gulf and Bosnia." However, one of the few hotspots where drug-taking did not appear to be a problem was in Northern Ireland. Stevie Reid, 35, who left the Black Watch more than ten years ago, served in the Province. He said: "Drugs were just kicking in as I left. You could see a trend emerging and identify the start of the problem, which, by definition, must be worse now because drug use in society as a whole has increased. "However, when I was in Northern Ireland, taking drugs would have presented an unacceptable risk to your life. When you were on duty, but off the street, you didn't leave the barracks. "When you were on patrol, it was essential that you had all your wits about you. This was a mad place, where people, particularly British soldiers were being killed. The last thing you needed was to hit the Falls Road with a stupid grin on your face and the prospect of confronting an IRA Provo armed with an Armalite." HOWEVER, Mr Reid was aware that when soldiers were removed from danger, they used drugs to relax. He said: "I knew guys who took the so-called recreational drugs when they went home on leave and met up with their old mates in civvy street. They slipped back into a culture which, for them, was entirely normal." John believes that since the Eighties, that line between the use of drugs in civilian life or on military duty has blurred. He said: "Most of the boys do take a good drink, which is traditional, and they take drugs when they go home. "However, I've been in quarters smoking spliffs of cannabis with other guys. When you are out of war zones, life is pretty much like civvy street. You get up and go to your work. You certainly don't worry about how it will affect your ability to function or your career. "Most guys I know would welcome being thrown out of the army. An SNLR is no real threat. It is even better if you get an admin discharge, which doesn't stipulate on your record that you were taking drugs." The serving soldier believes, like the sociologist, that the army cannot disassociate itself from society. "Of course, we reflect what's going on outside. How could we do anything else?" he added. - --- MAP posted-by: Eric Ernst