Marines Subjected to Tougher Drug Tests : Countywide

Troops at military bases in El Toro and Tustin are facing tougher drug testing aimed at detecting minute traces of methamphetamine, known more commonly on the street as “speed,” military officials said Monday.

The Navy on Monday began using the new test in Southern California out of concerns that methamphetamine was becoming the drug of choice among the military here.

Unlike cocaine or marijuana, methamphetamine had been difficult to spot during routine urinalysis because most of the stimulant can be flushed out of the body by drinking large amounts of water or coffee. The new test, developed at Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego, will detect smaller traces that linger for several days.

As of Monday, urinalysis sampling at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station and the Tustin Marine Corps Helicopter Air Station will be put through the more rigorous screening.

“I would hope there would be no indication that we have people using methamphetamine, but there’s no way to tell if there’s a problem . . . ,” said Maj. Jim McClain, a spokesman for the two Orange County bases.

“I do know it’s made clear to every Marine that comes into the corps that we do not tolerate drugs in any way, shape or form,” McClain said.

Overall drug use among the 12,000 troops at the Tustin and El Toro bases has dropped steadily since the Navy began random drug urinalysis in February, 1982. In 1986, five of every 1,000 Marines stationed at the two bases tested positive for drugs, according to Navy records. Two years later, only four out of every thousand men tested positive.

Navy officials in San Diego said they expect the new test to reveal many new cases of methamphetamine use among Southern California troops that had gone undetected. So far this year, 4,000 men out of 460,000 screened have tested positive for the drug. Navy officials in San Diego predicted that the detection rate could climb as much as 70%. A spokesman for the Orange County bases declined to speculate.