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happens all too often - you are told that your lucky number came
up once again and you have to provide a urine sample. No problem
you say, you do not use drugs, so there is nothing to worry about.
Well, not really!
As much as all military personnel may want to believe that only
drug users can pop positive on drug tests, that is simply incorrect.
Lets take the case of a hypothetical First Class (we will refer
to him as John) with 12 years of outstanding service. Assume for
purposes of this article that John is assigned to a shore based
command and is NOT a drug user. John provided his sample during
a random sweep, something he has done many times over the years.
He goes into the collection sight and from his perspective, it is
just another urinalysis. He provides a sample with not even a thought
of there being any problem, but two weeks later he is called into
the Master Chief’s office, read his rights under Art. 31 UCMJ
and advised that his urine specimen has come back positive for cocaine
at 2,405 ng/ml. The Master Chief explains the cut off is 100 ng/ml
and he wants some answers NOW! If John is smart, he will invoke
his right to remain silent and will not say anything.
The command has an obligation to take action against John under
the Navy’s Zero Tolerance program – that action can
be judicial (Court –Martial) or non-judicial and administrative
in nature. In most cases, NJP (Captains Mast) will be offered. Since
John is assigned to a shore command, he has the right to refuse
NJP and demand trial by Court-Martial. Assume for this article that
John does refuse Mast. The command now has to decide whether it
is going to take John to a Court-Martial, or directly to an administrative
separation board. The procedures are markedly differently, but in
many respects, John faces the same hurdles. First off, the vast
majority of the people that will be involved in John’s case
will honestly believe that he is a drug user as a result of the
urinalysis. We do not have the time to discuss in this article all
the procedures involved in an administrative separation board or
a Court-Martial. However, I want to discuss with you an issue that
frequently arises - that of unknowing ingestion.
Many people will scoff at the suggesting of unknowing ingestion
of drugs. I have had
many board or Court-Martials members tell me during the member’s
selection process (voir dire) that they could never come up positive
on a urinalysis because they do not use drugs. However, expert witnesses
from any DoD drug-screening laboratory will readily acknowledge
under oath that cocaine can be unknowingly ingested in a drink -
beer, soda, coffee or for that matter, water. Remember, the Master
Chief told John how the cut off level for cocaine (actually they
test for the metabolite of cocaine, known as benzoylecgonine [BZE])
was 100, and John popped for 2,405 ng/ml. One may think John has
a very high amount of cocaine in his system because his result is
24 times the cut off. Once again, the lab experts will contradict
that contention and will readily acknowledge it is certainly possible
for a person to unknowingly ingest cocaine in a drink and subsequently
provide a urine sample with an amount of 2,405 ng/ml.
The lab experts will explain that since cocaine is soluble in
water, a person could easily consume a beverage that a very small
amount of cocaine had been added to and that the person may have
no way of knowing that he/she had ingested cocaine. If a urinalysis
sample was provided within a couple days of the ingestion, a positive
urinalysis will result. Cocaine does not have a taste and does not
produce any noticeable color changes to liquid. Psychological and
physiological effects of cocaine can be variable from one individual
to another and the intensity of effects, if any, will be contingent
upon the amount and purity of cocaine consumed. If cocaine is orally
ingested, it has to pass through the person’s digestive system
before it gets into his/her bloodstream, which means that a significant
period of time (1-2 hours) will pass before any effects would be
felt at all, even with a high quantity of ingestion.
What this tells us is that any person could actually have cocaine
in his/her system when ordered to provide a urine sample and not
know it – even our outstanding First Class Petty Officer who
does not use drugs. What all this means is that while the urinalysis
system frequently does detect the drug abuser, it can also wrongfully
ensnarl even an outstanding First Class Petty Officer, just like
John or any one else, regardless of rank. For John, what is ahead
of him is frightening. After he refuses Mast, he will go to his
administrative separation board and tell the board members he did
not knowingly use cocaine. No matter what he says, or what evidence
of his outstanding military career he presents, the Recorder for
the board will most likely accuse John of lying and call him a drug
user. The Recorder’s argument may be “he’s an
outstanding sailor that made a mistake.” But John, a man who
is an outstanding sailor, has NOT made a mistake. He never used
cocaine, but his Navy career very well could be all over because
of the positive urinalysis.
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