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Armed Forces: Drug Tests

Answer

A total of 129,888 random drug tests were performed on military personnel in 2006, of which 844 were positive (0.65 per cent). The breakdown showing drugs or combination of drugs detected for each service, and for the Armed Forces as a whole, is shown in the table below.

2006	Royal Navy	Army	Royal Air Force	Armed Forces
Number of random tests performed on military personnel	12,505	104,499	12,884	129,888
Number of personnel testing positive (percentage of tests carried out)	57 (0.46%)	769 (0.74%)	18 (0.14%)	844 (0.65%)
Drug or combination of drug involved:				(percentage of positive tests)
Heroin	1	1		2 (0.24%)
Cocaine	35	340	8	383 (45.4%)
Cocaine/Ecstasy		34	2	36 (4.3%)
Cocaine/Ecstasy/Amphetamine		3		3 (0.36%)
Cocaine/Ecstasy/Cannabis		6		6 (0.71%)
Cocaine/Amphetamine		6		6 (0.71%)
Cocaine/Amphetamine/Cannabis		1		1 (0.12%)
Cocaine/Cannabis		33		33 (3.9%)
Ecstasy	9	73	2	84 (10.0%)
Ecstasy/Amphetamine		9		9 (1.1%)
Ecstasy/Amphetamine/Cannabis		3		3 (0.36%)
Ecstasy/Cannabis		10		10 (1.2%)
Cannabis	11	221	4	236 (28.0%)
Amphetamine		15	15	15 (1.8%)
Amphetamine/Cannabis		4		4 (0.47%)
Benzodiazephine	1	10	2	13 (1.57%)

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

3038; 691 c36-8WA

Session

2006-07

Subjects

Armed forces Drugs Misuse Testing

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk