A group of nineteen soldiers from one squadron have tested positive for cocaine and cannabis in the army’s biggest-ever drugs bust.
Sources revealed that the squaddies from the 1st Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment had been taking the drugs at the barracks and their home.
The majority were soldiers of Private rank but at least one was a Lance Corporal.
A source told a newspaper outlet that this was off the scale, and that it had sent shockwaves through the Army, and that nineteen in one round of testing was a large number and raised pretty serious questions.
It was said that before lockdown, the regiment was being tested every few weeks but that this latest round was the first for quite a long time, and that these were specific cases, so it wasn’t one wild night out.
Soldiers in the Catterick Garrison in North Yorkshire had complained they were bored and had nothing to do.
The army confirmed the bust, saying in a statement that several soldiers from 1 YORKS recently failed a compulsory drugs test, and it was said that the Army doesn’t tolerate drug abuse within its ranks as it’s incompatible with military service and operational effectiveness and that Army personnel found taking drugs can expect to be discharged.
Drug use is rising in the Armed Forces, latest figures reveal, with 660 personnel dismissed in 2019 for failing a test. The number was an increase from 580 two years ago.
Of course, they shouldn’t be doing this sort of thing, it’s the rules, after all, but all kinds of people do it, your next-door-neighbour, your kids, your work colleagues who have probably racked up lines and smoked herb – even nurses, teachers, solicitors, and sports players, and all government officials should be tested as well – judges, police and the courts for starters.
Although, it has to be said that nurses and teachers don’t have access to rifles and tanks.
And I would hate to think I was in a hospital where a nurse had been taking drugs, and I certainly wouldn’t be happy to get on a plane knowing that the pilots may have taken drugs, or go into an operating theatre as a patient because I would be too concerned that this rubbish had befuddled their brains and ability to think straight.
But it also makes you wonder if these soldiers are taking the drugs so that they fail their test so that they can be discharged – let’s face it, it would be the most foolproof way to get out of the army.
Nineteen soldiers from one regiment, well that’s a record not to be sniffed at.
Although, they really should look at the reasons for these lads taking drugs, aside from the obvious ones.
I can imagine that morale is extremely low in the forces now and if need help, they’re certainly not going to get or expect it. I wonder if they will publish the statistics of how many members are suffering from having served in Afghanistan, and then we question why they’re on drugs, and if your job involved putting your life on the line for a government that couldn’t care less, you’d probably be on something as well.
And why should we be so shocked that soldiers are taking drugs, hell, even the Cabinet minister’s are taking them, so why shouldn’t soldiers?
But then most of the United Kingdom is shocking, and we have the wrong kind of mentors, all the way up from schools to politics.
