The Army plans to tamp down substance misuse by telling soldiers to avoid poppy seeds and banning the cannabis concentrate, delta-8.
The new policies are part of newly published Army regulations aiming to reduce soldier drug and alcohol misuse. In addition to the updates on the drugs that are off-limits to soldiers, the regulations also update substance abuse training and reporting requirements for leadership.
The Army declined to provide a statement for this story despite repeated attempts to get additional detail on the service’s newly released policy.
The latest update on the service’s substance abuse regulations highlighted “continuous command presence” in soldiers’ living, working and recreational areas. However, this was already a requirement in their 2020 substance abuse regulations. The service did not clarify why it was highlighted as a change, or what that means in practice for soldiers living in the barracks.
The new regulations also direct installation and garrison commanders to “deglamorize” illegal drug use, prescription drug misuse and “irresponsible use” of alcohol.
(If you are a soldier on active duty and have attended, or will be attending briefings on the Army’s recent substance abuse regulations, we’d like to hear from you about how these regs will be put into practice. You can email patty.nieberg@taskandpurpose.com.)
The ban on delta-8 is not surprising since the Army previously said its use among soldiers was “increasingly problematic” and led to an increase in failed drug tests across the service. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol, also known as delta-8 THC, is a “psychoactive substance found in the Cannabis sativa plant, of which marijuana and hemp are two varieties” and is manufactured in concentrated amounts.
Army regulations previously banned hemp or hemp derivative products, but delta-8’s accessibility online and in stores and a lack of specific legal regulations around the substance “caused confusion” among soldiers, the Army noted in a 2022 press release. Officials said in the release that part of the legal loopholes around delta-8 came from it not being included in the 2018 Farm Bill which legalized CBD and other hemp derivatives.
The new regulation also calls attention to prescription drug abuse and states that the use of prescribed medications is valid only during the period dictated by a doctor. Soldiers can also be subject to a Uniformed Code of Military Justice violation if they use a prescribed medication six months after the most recent fill date on the label and “absent an otherwise specified date by the prescriber.”
With the new guidance, soldiers are directed to renew their prescriptions within six months. If not, positive drug tests for the same prescription that are “more than 12 months between prescription fill date” are considered “expired illegitimate.”
The new regulations also tell soldiers to “make every effort to avoid” food products with poppy seeds since newer seeds “may contain elevated levels of codeine” which could cause red flags during drug tests.
In addition to drug use, the regulations also include measures to cut down on underage drinking. According to the new regulation, soldiers under 21 who are found drinking may be referred to a 16-hour Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Training, ADAPT, which takes place over two days. However, the policy also notes an exception to underage drinking “when such use is permitted” by a separate regulation that allows senior commanders to supersede local drinking age laws for “special circumstances” like building morale or fostering camaraderie in a unit.
Reporting substance abuse
In 2016, the Army created the Substance Use Disorder Clinical Care Program, an independent entity focused on the clinical treatment of alcohol and drug-related addictions, separate from the Army Substance Abuse Program which focuses on prevention methods like testing, reporting, education, unit-level training and suicide prevention. If a soldier tests positive for drug misuse and the commander recommends treatment, they will now be referred to the clinical care program.
The regulations also update commanders’ reporting requirements for soldiers who test positive for drug misuse.
Now, commanders are required to refer soldiers with positive drug tests to behavioral health clinics for evaluation and to the ADAPT program within five duty days of the results. The regulation also notes that command referrals for clinical evaluation or treatment “does not interfere with or preclude” legal or administrative actions against a soldier.
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The new regulations also call for officials in charge of risk reduction programs on bases to help commanders identify high-risk units with anonymous surveys that should be completed at least 120 days before an operational deployment and another between 30 and 180 days after their return.
Review of annual training
According to Army regulations, active duty, Reserve and National Guard soldiers are required to complete alcohol and substance misuse prevention training each year. In some instances, bases partner with local groups to focus on a particular problem in that community like at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin which used the state’s “kNOw Meth” campaign to teach soldiers about methamphetamine which increased across the state by more than 400% between 2010 and 2017.
The regulations call for the Army to conduct a “25% random sample review” of the active duty Army each year to assess whether the annual training is “received” by soldiers. The policy is not specific about the format or type of the review the Army would use.
For unit prevention leaders who are in charge of employing random drug tests to units, they will now be referred to as unit “deterrence” leaders. The regulations also removed their previously held responsibility to conduct prevention training. Now, battalion and squad commanders are required to design the duration, location and style of “face to face” training for their soldiers. They can use available subject matter experts to assist in those trainings, according to the document.
For commanders and leaders at the squad-level and above, their annual training will be updated to teach them how to identify, assess, and refer soldiers who display “signs of problematic alcohol and substance use” for treatment.