Army rejects ‘high’ drugs test failure rate

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

YOUR report headlined ‘41 soldiers test positive for drugs since testing began’ (November 23) stated that 41 compulsory random drug test (CRDT) failures "remains high".

Given that this represents a 0.41% failure rate and a 99.59% pass rate (from 10,178 tests in seven years), on what foundation is this opinion based?

And what other organisation are we being compared to?

Drug use and military service are incompatible. The Defence Forces are one of the very few organisations in the state that have CRDT in place in which 10% of soldiers, sailors and air crew are randomly tested annually. It continues to prove a viable deterrent to drug use.

Comdt Gavin Young
Defence Forces Press Officer
Infirmary Road
Dublin 7

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Wednesday, November 25, 2009