Good intentions gone screwed up.....

A good friend of my told me something years ago that stuck with me. "Mike, I've always gotten pissed off when I hear 'Drugs and Alcohol', because alcohol is the most abused drug out there." Good point and the military has made efforts to handle abuse of alcohol by it's troops. But this time it may have gone a bit far.

Marines' new alcohol policy strictest in U.S. military - Washington Times

The Marine Corps‘ new on-duty standard for drinking alcohol is so strict that less than one drink at lunch would trigger a “positive” and get a warrior in hot water.

The Washington Times reported earlier this week that the Corps sent a Dec. 12 message to commanders officially beginning mandatory breath tests for all 197,000 Marines twice each year.

A reading of just .01 percent subjects a Marine to counseling. A Marine who registers a .04 must be examined by medical staff for fitness for duty.

The Corps is the first among the Army, Air Force and Navy to begin random mandatory testing of all personnel.

The Army leaves test decisions up to a commander and prohibits a blood alcohol content (BAC) at .05 percent or higher. The Air Force also instructs commanders to order alcohol tests when appropriate but has no compulsory program.

The Navy said last March it plans to conduct mandatory breath tests. A spokeswoman says the program will not start until next year.

Overall, this makes the new Corps anti-alcohol testing the military’s strictest.

The Marine memo calls a “positive test result” a reading of .01 or greater, which results in automatic “screening and treatment as appropriate.”

“I think it’s outrageously low,” said Neal Puckett, a defense attorney and retired Marine Corps judge advocate. “Guess it’s zero tolerance for alcohol just like the zero tolerance for drugs.”

“No one would be impaired at a 0.01 alcohol concentration,” said Bruce Goldberger, a University of Florida professor and a renowned forensic toxicologist, to The Times.

For an average-size man of 150 pounds, one drink would register a .02 reading, Mr. Goldberger said. For an average woman, he said, a single drink would result in a .03.

“So if you look at a scenario where someone in the Marine Corps goes to a bar and drinks two drinks, that would give him a BAC of a .04,” he said. “It would take him about two to three hours to clear the alcohol in the bloodstream.”

“It’s possible if a Marine goes to a bar and is drinking a substantial amount of alcohol over the course of an evening, and he gets himself to a BAC of 1.5 or 2.0, if they are tested first thing in the morning when they report to duty, they may still have some alcohol in their blood and test positive,” he added...

I've often complained that the Department of Defense treats its adults like children overseas. In the Middle East we are the only people under General Order Number One's more onerous regs, specifically no alcohol (with a few exceptions like Civil-Military Affairs personnel). I remember man a time the British Army soldiers would offer me a beer at Camp Arifjan and I would answer "God I want to but I can't!" Her Majesty's Army gives each soldier a ration of two beers a day. At the end of your shift you would be issued the two cans that were opened on the spot (you couldn't stockpile them) and enjoying unwinding with a brew. Like many a Brit does. The French has wine,etc and no one had problems. Only the Americans had to suffer through near beer.

The author seems to not know you can't drink at lunch while on duty but what about a more realist scenario. A Marine goes out with this buddies on a Tuesday night, gets drunk and they drive him home for 11:00 PM where he has a BAC of .18. Or he spends the evening with his buddies in the barracks drinking, them goes to sleep at 11:00 PM with the BAC of .18. After reporting to first formation at 6:00am he gets required to provide a breath test. The normal burn off of alcohol is .02 an hour so it will take at least nine hours to get him near .01. But will anyone really say someone who is at .04 after a night's sleep is impaired? I doubt it. Not to mention the Marine in these scenarios did the right thing. He went out and drank but he used a designed driver, or he drank in the barracks where he didn't have to drive. Putting a penalty on someone who is trying to comply with the rules can led to people showing contempt of authority.

Good intentions but I think this has to be retooled.