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UK: Soldiers on drugs 'may not face dismissal'

Ananova

Thursday 04 Apr 2002

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The Ministry of Defence says soldiers testing positive for drugs may be
offered rehabilitation rather than dismissal.

Commanding officers can already keep on those they believe have made a
one-off mistake.

An MoD spokeswoman said the soldiers could undergo a course combining basic
Army training with drug education.

She said: "What we are looking at is that in order that the commanding
officers can have confidence in these people returning to the unit they
might go to a rehabilitation unit. It would involve retraining - the basics
of being in the Army - and drug education."

The scheme was only at the study stage and no precise programme had been
decided on, she added.

The number of soldiers testing positive for drugs rose 10% last year to 668
but the spokeswoman stressed that the number of random tests had increased
by 15%.

Cannabis is widely predicted to be reclassified to a class C drug in a
Government shake-up of drug laws.

However, that would have no impact on the way it was viewed within the
Army, according to the spokeswoman.

"We still want people to do the same job. If they are using a drug it is
not really compatible with life in the military," she said.

 

 

 

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