Trends On high alert? More than 5% flunked military's drug tests (Canada)

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On high alert? More than 5% flunked military's drug tests

May 20, 2008 04:30 AM

VICTORIA–More than one in 20 Canadian soldiers and sailors in non-combat roles tested positive for illicit drug use in random tests conducted on more than 3,000 military personnel from coast to coast.

The results provided to The Canadian Press show that over a four-month period, 1,392 sailors in the navy's Atlantic and Pacific fleets and 1,673 soldiers in the army's four regions and training branch were subjected to blind drug testing.

Averaged out, 6.5 per cent of those tested in the navy and 5 per cent in the army indicated positive results, almost entirely for marijuana.

The results don't reflect the Canadian Forces' long-standing policy of zero-tolerance for such drug use and were not received happily by the Forces' high command.

The results prompted broader testing across the entire Canadian military – roughly 65,000 regular members and 24,000 reservists.

"Any kind of drug usage, of course, is not condoned in the Canadian Forces," Lt.-Col. Lisa Noonan, spokesperson for the chief of military personnel, said from Ottawa.

"We have a number of programs and policies in place to deter this drug usage," she said.

The military notes the results are still lower than the drug usage rates of 12 or 14 per cent in the general Canadian population.

The blind drug tests, which began in mid-December last year, were done without prior notice.

http://www.thestar.com/article/427546