U.S troops in Afghanistan and Iraq aren't routinely tested for steroid use

[ECH1969]

U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan submit to regular drug tests, but are not routinely tested for steroid use, a potential problem that surfaced recently after Italian police busted an international drug smuggling ring whose prospective clients included U.S. troops in Iraq.

Even while deployed to a combat zone, the services follow the general Defense Department practice of randomly testing 10 percent of a military unit’s members each month for drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and barbiturates, and designer drugs such as Ecstasy, representatives from each of the services said.

But testing for steroids is done only when commanders specifically request it, and to date, none have, said Col. Aaron Jacobs, chief deputy medical examiner at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology’s Forensic Toxicology office in Washington.

The Navy will administer the $300 drug test on a sailor if the command suspects steroid use, and after approval from the Navy’s Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention office in Millington, Tenn., spokeswoman Lt. Heidi Booth said.

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=30527

[atreides1]

1. 10%

Hell when I was in my whole Batallion would get tested, not just 10%,
everyone including the Batallion staff.

Every unit that I was assigned to after 1982 was tested 100%, I guess this is just another sign that the military standards have gone down.

[dArKeR]

2. Do Generals get tested? Does the White House who has authority

over the military get tested?

[Voltaire99]

3. American Puritanism run amock...

Make sure their pee is clean, even as you send them to kill people!

The absurdity knows no end...