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Army cracks down as drug, alcohol cases rise

Drug and alcohol abuse in the ranks is on the rise, and Army officials say commanders are largely to blame for failing to take control of the situation.

Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli issued commanders across the service a message directing them to do a better job of getting offenders into treatment or separated from the Army.

Chiarelli is leading an Army-wide crackdown on violations and placed renewed emphasis on reporting requirements. That could mean increased inspections of barracks rooms and more visits by leaders to soldiers’ off-post homes to make cursory evaluations of their living conditions.

Soldiers can expect stricter disciplinary action for positive urine analysis results and a possible wave of separations for soldiers who have a pattern of substance abuse after receiving help, Army leaders said. The requirement to randomly test 16 percent of a company’s soldiers each month and as directed by commanders will remain unchanged.

The substance abuse problem and lack of compliance by leaders came to light May 8 in an internal message from Chiarelli. His message is part of a larger campaign plan launched in April to uncover the reasons behind a record number of suicides among soldiers. In the plan, he said that until leaders become more fully engaged with their soldiers and their well-being, the Army’s burgeoning suicide rate will not be fully understood or stemmed.

“There is a growing population of soldiers with substance abuse problems, as indicated by multiple positive urinalysis results and alcohol-related actions that have not been referred to the [Army Substance Abuse Program] by their commanders,” Chiarelli said.

Only 70 percent of the soldiers who tested positive for illegal drug use have been referred to ASAP for treatment in the past three years, according to ASAP officials.

That rate should be 100 percent, ASAP director Les McFarling, said, “and that’s the point of Gen. Chiarelli’s message. ... He’s not about crushing soldiers and getting them out. He’s about getting them the help they need.”

Chiarelli’s assessment of drug use is validated by data from ASAP, which provides prevention and drug test coordination assistance to commanders.

Over the past five years, positive test results have risen steadily.

The percentage has gone from 1.72 percent for the active component in fiscal 2004 to 2.38 percent in fiscal 2008, said McFarling, who said the 2008 data was based on the Army’s end strength of about 540,000.

That would mean about 8,600 soldiers in fiscal 2004, and about 12,800 in fiscal 2008, tested positive.

Alcohol abuse also remains a problem with about 25 percent of soldiers found to be heavy drinkers in a 2005 Defense Department study, the most recent data available.

The incidence of alcohol abuse is detected differently than that for drugs, usually by military police or local police outside post, for driving under the influence or in observations by peers.

Alcohol is a factor in many soldier suicides, which are also tied to failed relationships, financial problems or pending legal actions.

“Alcohol use is greater than anything else. We are most concerned about alcohol use and abuse,” said Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo, commanding general of the 3rd Infantry Division’s 26,500 soldiers, who said he and his command sergeant major take twice as long now to review all substance abuse cases for extenuating circumstances, rejecting a “standard punishment” for everyone because of the war.

Col. Tom James, 3rd ID chief of staff, cited the case of a master sergeant who had an incident involving alcohol. A look into his record revealed he had no previous offenses, but had deployed three times and gone through nine roadside bomb incidents. They said they got him the help he needed.

“I would rather deploy under strength with good soldiers than keep marginal soldiers in the formation,” Cucolo said. “When we have drug- and alcohol-related offenses, we look at each soldier individually, but there is no blind eye to aberrant behavior.”

Chiarelli, who was named the Army’s point man on suicide prevention in February, kicked off a massive house-cleaning plan with orders to renew neglected health and welfare programs and to sweep up an accumulation of bad habits after seven years of war with a return to discipline in the garrison.

The Army Campaign Plan for Health Promotion, Risk Reduction and Suicide Prevention was launched in April and seeks to address almost 250 issues for updating or fixing in the areas of policy, training, organization, doctrine, leadership, facilities, resources and personnel, most before the end of the fiscal year.

His message, ordering commanders to comply with a requirement to refer soldiers to the ASAP for treatment, called substance abuse “one of the largest challenges in maintaining health” among soldiers.

“Substance abuse affects the health and morale of our force. I saw that when I visited a number of installations in March,” Chiarelli said in an e-mail to Army Times, explaining that while substance abuse is a problem, it’s not the only focus of his campaign to address suicides.

“My intent for sending out my message was to remind everyone of the resources available and regulatory requirements for dealing with substance abuse so that it doesn’t have a negative impact on the force.”

The predominant illegal substance found regularly in positive urine analysis tests, McFarling said, is marijuana, and the primary users are white male soldiers younger than 25, a demographic that has remained steady for years, he said. Cocaine is the second most common drug found in tests, but other substances such as LSD, methamphetamines, heroin and illegally used prescription drugs have also been found, said Brig. Gen. Colleen McGuire, director of the Suicide Prevention Task Force.

She and her team accompanied Chiarelli for an eight-day tour of six posts in mid-March, in which they learned, for example, that 1,000 soldiers at one unnamed post had “popped hot” on urine analyses in a one-year period. Of those, 372 were repeat abusers. None had been referred for treatment.

“I don’t think there was any blatant attempt to disregard regulations,” McGuire said, but rather it could be a combination of factors, including the inexperience of junior leaders, officers and noncommissioned officers, who haven’t known anything but the combat zone and are unfamiliar with leadership in garrison.

She pointed to “the old adage that people only do what the boss checks, or possibly some concern that they have to manage closely who they chapter and who they retain to make sure they’ve got the requisite unit fill.”

A unit may be reluctant to get rid of its only communications repairman if he “pops hot,” she said, because there may not be a replacement.

If soldiers are found to be using drugs, the Army may keep them in rather then separating them from service.

“Chaptering is at the discretion of the commander. On every hot UA, commanders are to initiate a chapter, that is by regulation, but you don’t have to follow through on that. It starts a process and depending on their treatment and how well they do, it will determine whether or not they stay in the military,” McGuire explained.

The soldiers most likely to feel the impact of Chiarelli’s global assessment of order and discipline are those living in the Army’s 167,000 barracks rooms, because that is where the youngest, newest population lives.

McGuire and other leaders acknowledged that the Army’s continuing effort to give soldiers more freedom and a greater degree of privacy, by building barracks that are more like apartments, has had the unintended consequence of allowing prohibited activities to flourish.

Senior NCOs interviewed by Army Times said they saw the handwriting on the wall when the 1989 initiative to give soldiers more autonomy, known as Better Opportunities for Single Soldiers, changed the barracks configuration and did away with the shared environment — and discipline.

“In the old days, your rooms were subject to inspections all the time, so it was all about the wall locker display, the shoe display, the hospital corners on the beds. When you walked in it looked like the Army,” said an NCO who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The NCO also noted that when soldiers worked and lived together, it fostered a tighter unit environment and “cliques didn’t form because we all hung out together.”

The absence of that shared environment, regular room inspections and main entries in today’s barracks also means that troubled soldiers can hide their problems from the rest of the population and from the unit chain of command.

By reinstituting regular inspections at some posts and promoting a return to a true buddy system, those troubled soldiers might be found sooner and illicit activity forced out, McGuire predicted.

During the tour of the six posts, she said, feedback indicated an “overwhelming anti-drug sentiment,” and an outcry from soldiers to send in drug-sniffing dogs to clean up the barracks.

Improper behavior in the barracks “has an effect on morale, too. We’ve got systems that address this, but again, the systems are not disciplined. This is tied to risk reduction and how [it may be] linked to suicide,” McGuire said.

“The garrison environment needs to be the hometown; it’s the bedrock, it’s the foundation, it’s where the family resides, it’s where your friends are,” she said.

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