Results of random drug testing prompt Rear Admiral's warning

This is great. They encourage drunkenness. You can get so drunk that you'll run around a ship naked and shit in the wardroom. You can piss all over the place, in other people's lockers, on settees. You can even be completely useless to do your job because you're so drunk and nobody will say a word.

But, you smoke some dope in your offtime... And they want to draw and quarter you.

Where are people's priorities??

Wow, should of joined the navy. I know you show up for work drunk here and you get charged. I have seen that happen a couple of times. I know that for us they don't encourage drinking at all...

According to that article I detect a zero tolerance for drug and alcohol.

Yep. Tentpeg meet hammer.

You would be wrong. I pay Cdn $1 a beer and about .50 a shot. Our "cafeteria" has a pop machine with 600 cans of beer in it. And it's never locked. We usually have about 500 free beer thrown on monthly for the crew just in the lower ranks mess.

I can go to work, sit in the cafeteria and drink all day if there's not a whole lot of work going on or if somebody is willing to cover. I've seen people showing up to emergency fire drills and they were staggering. I've been called out of my work area by somebody of a higher rank than me because they wanted me to go and find somebody to cover for them since they were too drunk and didn't want to get in trouble.

But, again.. If somebody wants to smoke a joint after work, they're looking at losing their job. It's the dumbest most hypocritical thing I have ever seen.

If memory serves me well doesn't the Navy still have a policy on bar/beer machine hours and a no nonsense policy on abuse drinking?

If these are still in effect, I think you should look more towards your CO and Coxswain who are letting these flagrant abuses of policy run rampant.

If what you are saying is true, it may be that your CO, XO and Coxswain thought they had a mature crew onboard and felt that they could trust them not to overindulge and act like asses, which may not be the case.

Their is nothing hypocritical about the drug policy, it's been in place for decades and by trying to equate it with abuse drinking, which is also illegal, is a poor attempt to deflect the facts.

I have a question though. When you signed up did they inform you that the use of recreational drugs was illegal in the Navy and if you felt so strongly about the right to partake of these drugs, why did you still enlist?

You're making assumptions. Just because I believe that it is hypocritical to allow one and not the other does not mean I do either.

The rules and policies haven't changed with the times. Neither have the laws of our country. We all know the basic rules will always be there, such as do not harm others or steal. But, laws and rules should be looked over and adjusted to society today. Not society in 1950..

Fortunately the Navy doesn't have the same rights and priviledges as society, much to chagrin of some members. When you enlist you give up those rights and if people don't like the fact that they have to, they shouldn't have joined up. It's an autocratic society where your duty is to follow orders not debate them.

This whole smoking dope vs drinking debate has been going on in the military since the sixties and the results are still the same, both impair your mental ability which could lead to disasterous results for the member, his shipmates and the ship, which is probably why they brought in things like bar hours, alcohol rehabilitation programs and zero tolerance policies.

I'll agree though, it is somewhat hypocritical of your ship to allow a complete disregard for the rules for alcohol comsumption and conduct, while the Admiral is stating Navy policy about drug use. But it still doesn't mitigate the fact that neither is allowed.

The real problem may be with your ship and it's command structure which, if what you say is true has a major discipline problem that'll likely lead to an incident which they won't be able to explain away.