Pubdate: Tue,  8 Jul 2003
Source: Northern Territory News (Australia)
Copyright: 2003 Northern Territory News
Contact:  http://ntnews.news.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/283
Author: Gary Meyerhoff

SERVICEMEN NOT IMMUNE

Well surprise, surprise, drug use is rife in our defence force. Obviously 
things are no different to when I served in the RAN in the early nineties. 
It is ludicrous to believe that the members of our defence force are immune 
to illicit drug use. Like thousands of young Australians, our servicemen 
and women discovered the benefits of illicit drug use long ago.

How can we expect our soldiers to refrain from illicit drug use when we 
send them to conquer countries like Iraq, where they will be subject to 
ongoing and sustained resistance? How can they be drug free after they have 
seen the horrors of Vietnam or more recently Timor or Rwanda?

Our soldiers are faced with scenes that many of us will never have to face 
and yet we expect them to abstain from using any illicit drugs. Would we 
prefer that they all become raging alcoholics?

Society needs to accept that to ingest substances, whether they are licit 
or illicit is and always will be a part of human nature. The ADF needs to 
stop purging soldiers who are using illicit drugs and provide them with the 
appropriate level of support that they require to get over some of the 
trauma that they have been through.

Gary Meyerhoff
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