MARINES FACE DISCHARGE FOR SMOKING LEGAL SUBSTANCE

When Pfc. Matthew Clark was placed on restriction last month, he
thought he'd been busted for smoking in the barracks.

Now he faces court-martial and administrative separation from the
Marine Corps after being accused of smoking a legal substance many of
his friends had never even heard about.

Clark and a friend, Pfc. Dijon Lawless, both students at Camp
Johnson's Marine Corps Combat Service Support School, learned from
another Marine private about "spice," a legal blend of herbs that
produces cannabinoid effects including increased relaxation, loss of
coordination and mild hallucinations when smoked.

Clark and Lawless went to a local tobacco shop where packets of spice
are kept in a large front display case and sold by the ounce,
beginning at $20 for a half-gram packet.

The packaging is marked as "incense," but Clark and Lawless said they
also purchased blunt wraps at the shop to smoke it in.

"If I knew that it was illegal for us to be smoking this, I would
never have bought it," Clark said.

Initially, the two Marines said they were charged with two counts of
Universal Code of Military Justice Article 92, failure to obey a
direct order, for smoking in their barracks and compromising duty
readiness. But in mid-January, they said they were told that officers
with their Logistics Operations School were pursuing courts-martial
and dishonorable discharges for each of them.

While the conflict over spice has remained low profile on East Coast
Marine Corps bases, widespread use by military personnel has led to
specific regulations elsewhere.

The use of spice by Marines in Okinawa, Japan, in 2008, prompted a
base order specifically prohibiting its use. The base established a
zero-tolerance policy with maximum punishments including dishonorable
discharge, two years confinement, forfeiture of all pay and reduction
in rank to E-1. And on Dec. 1, a general order governing Camp
Pendleton and all Marine Corps Forces Pacific barred all service
members from possession, use, distribution or manufacture of spice or
its affiliates. But on the East Coast, the subject remains a grey
area, officials from Camp Lejeune's Naval Hospital said.

The hospital's Command Judge Advocate, Navy Lt. Samantha Keck, said
that because spice does not test positive on a routine urinalysis and
officials have not, until now, been trained to smell for it or detect
its effects, service members usually need to be caught in the act of
smoking spice to merit punishment. Since spice does have non-drug
properties, even possession at this point is not necessarily damning.

"There are reports of spice being used for things like potpourri,"
Keck said. "Depending on how it is found in your possession, that's
going to be an inference." So far, Keck said, two sailors have been
busted using spice; and each command is seeking its own guidance on
how to treat the infractions, with non-judicial punishment a likely
outcome.

The hospital's senior enlisted officer, Command Master Chief Terry
Prince, said that new efforts were in place at the hospital to ensure
that every beginning sailor was briefed about spice by name. And while
violators will receive mandatory drug abuse counseling and punishment,
the working policy for now on the Navy side is not one of zero
tolerance. "They're not going to be shown the door out of the Navy.
We're talking about someone smoking potpourri, which is just stupid,"
Prince said. "We take pride in our sailors. We want to give people a
chance to be successful." The controversy over spice so far seems not
to have extended into the civilian community. Onslow County Health
Director, George O'Daniel, said he had no familiarity with the product.

Marine Corps officials did not immediately respond to queries about
working policies surrounding spice or how Marines aboard Camp Lejeune
are briefed about it. Base officials said that, in place of specific
guidance, the use of spice is illegal under SecNav Instruction
5300.28d and OpNav Instruction 5350.4c, which broadly regard substance
abuse prevention and control. Clark and Lawless, who joined the Marine
Corps less than a year ago, said they were never briefed on spice by
name and hadn't heard of it until a friend advised them to try it.

Clark's father, Kevin Clark, a retired Navy chief petty officer, said
the threat of his son getting dismissed from the Marines for something
he didn't know about inspired him to take action: He is now looking
into legal recourse. Deciding to smoke spice in the first place was a
"bonehead move" on his son's part, Kevin Clark said. However, he
added, Matthew Clark's briefing had been inadequate.

"He wanted to be a Marine since he was 13 years old, and now he's
seriously worried about being booted," Kevin Clark said.

The court-martial procedure typically takes about a month. Marine
officials say they expect direct guidance for Camp Lejeune regarding
spice in the near future.