SERVICEMEN NOT IMMUNE

Well surprise, surprise, drug use is rife in our defence force. Obviously
things are no different to when I served in the RAN in the early nineties.
It is ludicrous to believe that the members of our defence force are immune
to illicit drug use. Like thousands of young Australians, our servicemen
and women discovered the benefits of illicit drug use long ago.

How can we expect our soldiers to refrain from illicit drug use when we
send them to conquer countries like Iraq, where they will be subject to
ongoing and sustained resistance? How can they be drug free after they have
seen the horrors of Vietnam or more recently Timor or Rwanda?

Our soldiers are faced with scenes that many of us will never have to face
and yet we expect them to abstain from using any illicit drugs. Would we
prefer that they all become raging alcoholics?

Society needs to accept that to ingest substances, whether they are licit
or illicit is and always will be a part of human nature. The ADF needs to
stop purging soldiers who are using illicit drugs and provide them with the
appropriate level of support that they require to get over some of the
trauma that they have been through.

Gary Meyerhoff