16 TROOPS IN DRUG TESTS SHAME

Soldiers Face Being Thrown Out Of Army

Sixteen soldiers face the boot from the Army after failing drugs tests.

The squaddies were among 450 men from the 1st Battalion of the Royal
Regiment of Scotland who had compulsory drug tests at Dreghorn
Barracks in Edinburgh last month.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said yesterday: "Sixteen members of
the 1st Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland provided positive
drugs samples.

"Appropriate action will be taken against all 16.

"It is too early to say if they will be thrown out but individuals
found to have taken illegal substances are usually discharged.

"Drugs are not compatible with life in the armed forces."

The spokesman added that drug use in the Army was less common than in
civilian life. He said: "The average in the army is 0.7 per cent of
those tested. It is five per cent among civilians.

"Drug use is much less prevalent in the armed forces than in the
equivalent civilian population." The 1st Battalion of the Royal
Regiment of Scotland was formed last year from the merger of the
King's Own Scottish Borderers and the British Army's oldest regiment,
the Royal Scots.

The KOSB had just returned from a tour of Northern Ireland, where they
were based in Omagh, when the regiments merged.

The Royal Scots, who can trace their roots back to 1633 when the
regiment was raised by King Charles I to fight in France, had just
completed a tour of duty in Iraq.

Now based at Dreghorn, the men of the new joint regiment, known as the
Royal Scots Borderers, have been undergoing intensive training
programmes in preparation for possible deployment in Iraq or
Afghanistan later this year.

In 2002, five members of the Royal Scots tested positive for drugs.

And in 2005 one soldier from the KOSB was booted out after testing
positive for cannabis.

Last month's drugs tests were the first carried out on the regiment
since the merger last summer.

It was not known last night which drugs the soldiers were believed to
have taken.

But MOD figures show that there is increasing use of hard drugs among
soldiers.

In 2005, the latest year for which statistics are available, 520
British soldiers tested positive for Class A drugs such as heroin and
cocaine.

That was up from 350 Class A positive tests the previous year.

The number who tested positive for cannabis, which is a Class C drug,
rose from 340 in 2004 to 460 in 2005.

A total of 89,000 soldiers in the British Army underwent drug testing
in 2005.

Infantry regiments traditionally recruiting from city areas, such as
the Royal Scots, were generally found to have the biggest drugs problems.

But the worst regiments for drugs busts were the Royal Logistics Corps
and the Royal Artillery.