NAVY ANTI-DRUG WAR PROVES EFFECTIVE

Random Screening Has Helped Cut Illegal Drug Use By Sailors

Without warning, Navy Petty Officer Lahaunn Moore was told as he stood
in a morning formation in January that it was his turn to submit to
one of his command's random drug tests.

"The supervisor just walked up to me and said: 'Moore, it's your turn
for urinalysis,'" said Moore, now protocol assistant at the U.S.
Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor.

Moore, 23, was immediately escorted to a bathroom and given a plastic
bottle. The urine sample was then taken to a collection point.

Since 1982, the Navy has been screening all of its sailors for illicit
drug use -- for drugs ranging from marijuana, cocaine, to ice and
Ecstasy -- under its "zero-tolerance" program. The Navy says, "All
personnel found guilty of a single incident of drug use must be
processed for administrative separation."

Today, the Navy maintains that fewer sailors are using illegal drugs,
noting that less than one half of 1 percent of all urine samples now
come back positive. Navy officials say the most likely drug user is a
male sailor who has been in the service for less than three years and
has not qualified for any specialty.

In 1982, the first year of urinalysis screening, the percent of
positive samples was 7.21 percent. The percentage of positive samples
this year through April has dropped to 0.47 percent.

Linda Boswell, Pacific Fleet's alcohol and drug control officer, said
test results in her command reflect the same downward trend.
Urinalysis tests conducted between October and April resulted in 0.43
percent positive samples.

"We see our accomplishment due to our prevention triad: leadership
awareness, random urinalysis and prevention education," Boswell said.

Bill Flannery, the Navy's alcohol and drug abuse prevention program
manager in Millington, Tenn., said, "The drug testing program in the
Navy today is the model by which drug testing programs in the civilian
community are designed."

Boswell said a cornerstone of the Navy's drug program is the ability
of commanding officers and senior enlisted leaders to influence the
actions of their subordinates.

"We ask them to assess their environment," Boswell for risk factors,
to determine who are the sailors most at risk."

Under the Navy's screening program, sailors are subject to two
possible tests each year.

Each month, 19 to 20 percent of the assigned sailors to a particular
command are picked by a computer to be screened, said Lt. Mike Morley,
Pacific Fleet spokesman. "There is no warning or excuses," he added.

Morley said the entire command is checked annually.

Moore said during the nearly six years he has been in uniform he can't
recall how many tests he has had to take since there were so many.
"Last year alone I think I was tested at least three times," Moore
said.

Boswell said the drug prevention education program is designed to
inform sailors about the consequences they face under the Navy's "zero
tolerance" program.

"We try to give them value-based decisions to reject drug and alcohol
abuse," she said.

If a sailor flunks an urinalysis test, Morley said, an administration
separation board is convened where the sailor can plead his or her
case.

Morley said samples drawn in Hawaii are sent to drug-screening labs in
San Diego. There are others in Norfolk, Va., and Jacksonville, Fla.

Boswell said Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vernon Clark has said that
he wants to reduce the number of positive tests this year by 25
percent. Clark also wants to increase the numbers of sailors tested,
which has steadily climbed from 450,000 in 2001, to 515,000 in 2002,
and 577,000 through March 31.

In the Pacific Fleet, 122,142 sailors were tested during the fiscal
year which began in October 1998. The following year, 177,505 had to
submit to urinalysis. Between October and April, 200,780 sailors in
the Pacific Fleet were tested.

Moore said the Navy approach "focuses not on solving the program, but
preventing it from happening. It's a great deterrence."