Army dismissing 'battalion a year' through drugs (1st Update)

By Rich Bowden,M&C Staff Writer Dec 14, 2007, 11:40 GMT

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown meets British soldiers at Basra airbase on 09 December 2007 in Iraq. EPA/Peter Macdiarmid POOL

(M&C) - The British army is losing the equivalent of a battalion a year through troops testing positive to illegal drugs a report revealed today.

The numbers of soldiers testing positive under compulsory drug testing (CDT) has risen from from 517 in 2003 to 769 last year.

The numbers discharged from the army are more than the fatalities and casualties of Iraq and Afghanistan says figures produced by the Royal United Services Institute.

Christianne Tipping, head of the institute's defence leadership and management programme, says in a separate publication,"The MoD needs to be sure that its near zero tolerance approach still constitutes the best way of managing the problem of drug abuse in the armed forces."

However a MoD spokesman said the illegal drug problem in the services was not widespread citing figures which show "Positive rates in the army over the last four years average around 0.77%, compared with more than 7% in civilian workplace drug testing."

The army tests around 85 percent of its staff each year.

Update: The officer in charge of Army discipline, Colonel John Donnelly, has said the increased level of illegal drug use may be linked to combat stress.

Speaking to BBC Radio, Colonel Donnelly said, "Cocaine is more available and, certainly for our soldiers, it is becoming increasingly the drug of choice."

Linking combat deployment and the drug use he added: "The effects on the mind following demanding operations are well known. They manifest themselves in a number of areas and drugs maybe one of them."