NAVY REVAMPING DRUG POLICY

More Sailors to Be Tested, DUI Rules Will Get Tougher

Hoping to stamp out the last vestiges of a culture that tolerated
drug use and celebrated binge drinking, the Navy is amping up its
crackdown on substance-abusing sailors.

Its new policy increases by half the percentage of Navy personnel
that must be randomly drug-tested each month and requires every
sailor to be screened within 72 hours of reporting to a new command
to show that all units take the campaign seriously. Service members
who test positive are automatically discharged.

The revised rules also get tougher with sailors who repeatedly drink
and drive. Now a second DUI offense will trigger expulsion from the
Navy. Previously, the offender's commanding officer had final discretion.

As part of the stricter program, launched July 30, the Navy is
requiring more commands to appoint a senior member as an alcohol and
drug control officer. That person will set up prevention programs and
get treatment for those who need it.

The Navy's goal is to reduce substance abuse by at least 25 percent
in a few years, said Bill Flannery, director of the Navy Alcohol and
Drug Abuse Prevention program.

"Until we achieve zero, I have to assume that substance abuse is out
there," he said. "In the field of prevention, if you feel like you've
won, you've lost."

The Navy's actions follow a revamping of the Army's substance-abuse
program six months ago. The Army guidelines mandate, among other
things, random urine tests for 4 percent of soldiers in each command per week.

The timing of the Navy's action leaves some military experts puzzled.
It comes as military drug abuse has reached a post-Vietnam War low
and serious alcohol-related incidents have dropped from the levels of
three or four years ago.

"It seems odd that they would be tightening up when everything is
fine," said Don Guter, dean of the South Texas College of Law in
Houston and a chief judge advocate general for the Navy and Marine
Corps. "It doesn't appear that it's in response to a problem."

Across the Navy, the annual number of positive drug tests has dropped
by nearly two-thirds since 2001 -- to 2,309 in fiscal year 2008. For
Navy Region Southwest, which includes six states but is dominated by
San Diego-based service members, the figure fell more than 50 percent
- -- to 384.

During the same time period, DUI arrests rose about 7 percent across
the Navy but dropped 15 percent in the Southwest region.

All branches of the military have battled drug abuse in their ranks
since the Vietnam War, when widespread use of marijuana and harder
drugs seeped into the military from the broader culture.

President Richard Nixon created the first drug urinalysis program in
1971, targeting troops returning from Vietnam. It was expanded into a
militarywide, random drug screening in 1974 to identify candidates
for drug treatment.

Six years later, psychologist Robert Bray completed the first of 10
surveys for the Defense Department on service members' health,
including their use of drugs and alcohol.

In that original survey, nearly 37 percent said they had used illegal
drugs during the past year. The Marine Corps (48 percent) and the
Navy (43 percent) recorded the highest percentages.

On May 26, 1981, a jet crash and fire on the deck of the aircraft
carrier Nimitz off the coast of Florida killed 14 sailors, injured 48
others and caused about $150 million in damage. What caused a
shockwave throughout the Navy, though, was news that traces of
marijuana were found in the systems of six of the dead sailors, and
that drugs contributed to the crash and its aftermath.

Seven months later, President Ronald Reagan's administration
announced a zero-tolerance drug policy for all military branches. All
service members were subject to urinalysis, and those who failed
could be punished with courts-martial and discharge.

Drug use across the military plummeted by at least two-thirds by
1985, according to Bray's surveys, and it has continued to fall ever since.

Former Navy lawyer Joseph Casas now runs a private practice in San
Diego, and he represents many sailors and Marines who have failed drug tests.

"When I get a client who has popped positive, there's not much I can
do," he said. "The Navy is doing the right thing. They should be
harsh. There's no room for drugs in the military."

The Navy's battle against alcohol is much harder because drinking has
been part of the service's culture for 200 years, since the days when
sea captains recruited their crews from pubs and handed out daily
rations of grog.

"Heavy drinking is a tradition. It's part of being a sailor," said
Genevieve Ames, a medical anthropologist at the Berkeley-based
Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, who has studied the issue.

Alcohol once lubricated some of the Navy's oldest ceremonies, such as
the ancient "shellback" ritual for crossing the equator and the
annual initiation of chief petty officers. As a result of changes in
the past two decades, drinking is no longer a sanctioned part of such events.

The scandal that followed the 1991 Tailhook convention of naval
aviators in Las Vegas caused a seismic change in the military's
official attitude toward sexual harassment and drinking. The Navy has
been trying to change its "boys club" reputation.

"I see the Navy as a Fortune 500 company that provides people with
benefits and a career," Flannery said. "Alcohol abuse is not what we do."

But Bray's and Ames' research show that drinking habits have been
hard to change. In the overall military, the percentage of service
members describing themselves as heavy drinkers has barely dropped --
from 21 percent in 1980 to 19 percent in 2005, the latest year for
Bray's published results.

Sailors spend long and often dull stretches cooped up aboard ships,
punctuated by short bouts of "liberty" in overseas ports. That
contributes to binge drinking, which Ames said her research shows is
epidemic in the Navy. Most sailors are 17 to 25, a period when
they're especially susceptible to alcohol abuse.

Ships' commanders have tried to make a dent by setting up structured
tours and community service projects in foreign ports. But
pub-crawling remains a popular pastime at every port stop.

The key to cutting drug and alcohol abuse, Ames said, is a strong
policy that's enforced consistently. If the new rules do that, she's
in favor of them.

"We've got to have safety and readiness," Ames said. "We're at war."

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"The Navy is doing the right thing. They should be harsh. There's no
room for drugs in the military."

Joseph Casas, attorney