ON HIGH ALERT? MORE THAN 5% FLUNKED MILITARY'S DRUG TESTS

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.