Soldiers continuously endure stress and i think for that reason the (usually )minor problems of drug use should be over-looked .Unless traning for or on an operaton taking drugs isnt hurting anyone if you use in moderation ,much like anything else.
You need to be specific with what drugs you are refering to here. I‘m asuming that you‘re talking about marijuana, and to a degree I would agree that a little pot is not a big deal, aside from the fact that they are blatently breaking DND policy.
However if those soldiers do a little bit of narcotics like heroin, cocaine, or barbituates, or some halucinogenics like LSD, or mescaline, or any of the "designer drugs" typically stimulants like ecstacy and methamphetamine, then there could be serious problems.
Just a note here also to people who incesantly argue the flashbacks, decreased short term memory, and pshycotic episodes as a result of smoking marijuana I want to point out that while there is evidence that suggests that at least some (one) of these events may result, it is generally accepted that it happens only after long term chronic use. I can assure you that I know plenty of people from B.C. who have smoked near chronic levels of marijuana for many years and still manage to perform highly stressful and mentally challenging jobs. I have friends who smoked pot throughout law school, med school (this one was casual only though) and engineering programs. I would say that I‘ve met and discussed marijuana with a minimum of 300 people who all have their own backrounds in marijuana use, in addition to what they‘ve learned from the probably hundreds of people that they‘ve talked to.
To get to the point, I‘ve never heard anyone say to me that they‘ve had a hallucinogenic experience, psychotic episode, or any kind of flash back from marijuana use. The only people who have ever indicated to me, or who I could simply tell on my own had suffered any kind of short term memory loss were the absolutely most hardcore users I met. People who smoke pot like its cigarettes, joints before breakfast right through to joints before bed.
I‘m not trying to say its safe, because obviously the damage that eventually does become noticable begins to happen at some point prior to when you can actually identify that the damage is done, but it seems pretty obvious that if someone got high only 2 or 3 times a month, any ill effect suffered would be so insignificant it would probably measure less damage on your brain than simply breathing the polluted air we do every day.
On the flip side, to anyone who‘s pro marijuana use, even for members of the military, you need to either remember or realise right away that marijuana and hash are notorious for turning up laced. I have known many (and I mean many) people who have inadvertently smoked narcotics while smoking a joint. It‘s common practice for a "dealer" to lace bags of low grade marijuana with cocaine or speed to give the user a really strong high and make them belive they are smoking top grade pot. Before you say that it‘s not practical that they would not do that, because the cocaine is expensive, im going to say "trust me, im in the know on this one" and it‘d take time to explain why its profitable.
When I was growing up there was a phenomenon known as "creeper weed", some of you pot heads out there may know the term. Those of you who don‘t, it means when you smoke it you get a good buzz or high, and about 20 minutes later you suddenly discover that you‘re getting more high, and not just a little bit. You get wasted, and it can be really scary if you were already pretty high in the first place.
The thing is, generally a marijuana high will begin to ebb off after about 15-30 minutes, thats why the creeper weed is so peculiar. The answer why that happens has nothing to do with specially grown or modified marijuana, its because after 20 minutes or so, when the pacifying and relaxing effects of the actual marijuana that was in the joint/bowl wear off, the longer lasting effects of whichever substance it was laced with become the dominant effect. So whats really happening is that the induvidual is really coming to feel the effects of smoking narcotics, and thats why "creeper weed" causes intense paranoia 9/10 times.
Before any potheads jump on me and try to dismiss what I‘m saying, I‘m going to say that I know what I‘m talking about. I‘ve seen the process, I‘ve seen the things people lace marijuana with, I‘ve seen people buy laced drugs and disappear off without a clue.
To make this long story end, I‘m going to get back to the point and say that ultimately a soldier smoking pot in his free time could very easily be hurting himself and putting others at risk. The fact is, if you don‘t grow marijuana yourself you really don‘t know whats in it. It‘s not regulated by health inspectors like alcohol is.
These are things I‘ve known people to smoke in a joint, and usually without prior knowledge:
PCP, Cocaine, Methamphetamine, Heroin, psilocybin (magic mushrooms), various prescription and over the counter medicines, and Lysol brand disinfectant spray. The Lysol is know to cause visual hallucinations when applied during the curing process of the marijuana buds.
I would guarantee that for those of you who smoke pot, or "used to smoke pot", that if you ever bought any marijuana from guy on a street corner and not from someone you know who grows it, that you have definately had some contact with laced drugs. It‘s a very common practice. High grade marijuana is very expensive, most kids could not afford it. So they load up the cheap stuff with a little something to give it some extra kick.
