El Toro, Tustin Bases : Tests Show Marines’ Drug Use Declining

Despite widespread perceptions of rampant drug use in the military, only four of every 1,000 servicemen stationed at Orange County’s two Marine bases last year tested positive for marijuana, cocaine or other illegal drugs.

Drug test results obtained by the Times Orange County Edition also show that the apparent drug use among servicemen in the Marine aircraft wing that includes El Toro and Tustin has been dropping steadily since 1986, when five of every 1,000 Marines tested positive for drugs. The figures correspond to a drop in drug use among Marines worldwide.

Marine officials attributed the drop to a rigorous drug testing program instituted after nearly one-third of the nation’s military admitted in a 1980 survey that they experimented with drugs.

“Marines are now tested enough to be a deterrent but not so often to be detrimental to morale,” said Master Sgt. Steve Merrill, a spokesman for the El Toro base. There are 12,000 Marines stationed at the two Orange County bases.

Spotlighted by Kraft Trial

Drug use among servicemen was spotlighted in testimony recently during Randy Steven Kraft’s trial in Orange County Superior Court, where he is charged with killing 16 young men. There, it was suggested that Terry Lee Gambrel, a dead Marine found in Kraft’s car when he was arrested 6 years ago, was heavily involved in drugs.

A friend of Gambrel’s, himself an ex-Marine, testified that half the Marines at the El Toro base where Gambrel was stationed were also using drugs.

But a 1982 crackdown has effectively discouraged drug use in the military.

Pentagon studies had found that military personnel were more likely to use drugs than civilians because of the rigors and loneliness of military life. In addition, the military consisted primarily of young men who are more prone to both drug and alcohol abuse.

The military has never attracted hard-core drug users because the training is too rigorous, said Maj. Ron Stokes, a Marine Corps spokesman in Washington. But he added that even experimental use is considered a problem.

“Quite honestly, drugs are a problem at any level,” Stokes said. “We won’t be happy until we have zero use of drugs in the Marine Corps.”

The Marines had been testing pre-boot camp recruits for drugs since the 1970s, Stokes said. In February, 1982, it was expanded to include all Marines on a frequent, random basis, including those assigned to new bases or returning from leave.

Marine officials said that a serviceman is tested an average of 4 times a year.

At the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station and Tustin Marine Corps Helicopter Air Station, random checks are often conducted on a unitwide basis, said 1st Lt. G.C. Browne, a spokesman for the two Orange County bases.

“They will take a unit, such as my Joint Public Affairs Office, and send a crew of people out with sample bottles,” Browne said last week. “It could happen right now.”

Second Chance

Browne said that those who test positive in the initial test, a urinalysis that detects only marijuana and cocaine, are sent to another location for confirmation testing. There, they are tested for several other drugs, such as barbiturates.

Enlisted men and women may be given a second chance before being dishonorably discharged. Officers, however, are booted out after just one time. Drug traffickers face an automatic court-martial.

“If you value your career, it’s really not worth it to use drugs,” said a 29-year-old staff sergeant at El Toro who has been in the Marines for 11 years.

He and other Marines interviewed near the El Toro base last week, none of whom wanted to be identified, agreed that there has been a sharp decline in drug use in the military. They attributed it to the drug testing.

Another staff sergeant, 33, said that when he first enlisted 14 years ago, an estimated “80 out of 100” servicemen experimented to some degree with illegal drugs. Today, he estimates only 4 out of 100 do so.

Peer Pressure

A third Marine, a 24-year-old corporal, said that there is also increased peer pressure not to use drugs because the servicemen have to work together in combat situations. They also have to rely on one another in flying helicopters and jets.

“If I can’t depend on you, I don’t want you next to me,” the corporal said.

Few Marines like undergoing frequent drug tests, he said, “but it’s a fact of life in the Marine Corps.”

The drug testing is supplemented by education and drug rehabilitation programs. Enlisted men who are first offenders may be ordered to sign up for on-base rehabilitation.

At El Toro and Tustin, 420 patients have been admitted for drug or alcohol rehabilitation since 1986, Browne said. Most of the admissions are alcohol related.

The few Marines who still use drugs at El Toro or Tustin tend to fall in the lower ranks of enlisted men, Marines there said. The drugs of choice, said one Marine, are marijuana and cocaine, in that order.

But longtime Marines said they knew of no serviceman who had used drugs for very long without getting caught.

“You won’t get away with it,” a corporal said.

U.S. Marine Corps Drug Testing Percent tested postive Worldwide Marine Corps: 17% 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing El Toro, Tustin, Camp Pendleton and Yuma: .37% Military Drug Use All branches of service were asked if they had used illicit drugs during the previous 30 days. Percent responding yes.: 5.5%