2 articles- drug use by US soldiers not monitored for steroid use

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/07/23/wirq23.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/07/23/ixportal.html

Stressed US troops in Iraq 'turning to drugs'
By Thomas Harding in Baghdad
(Filed: 23/07/2005)

Two years into the occupation of Iraq the menace of drug abuse
appears to be afflicting American troops.

Aware of the debilitating effect drugs had on the morale and
effectiveness of GIs in the Vietnam War, the authorities are
attempting to stifle a repeat in Iraq.

Aside from random urine tests and barrack room searches, commanders
have asked their troops to inform on colleagues.

In the past month a soldier has been arrested for selling cocaine and
two per cent of the troops from one brigade have been charged with
drug and alcohol abuse.

According to US army figures, out of the 4,000 men of the 256th
Brigade Combat Team, 53 faced alcohol-related charges and 48 were
charged with drug offences.

Since the overthrow of Saddam's regime the borders that have been so
porous for insurgents have been equally open for heroin and hash
smugglers from Afghanistan and Iran providing a cheap market for
troops. With colleagues being killed or wounded on a daily basis,
some US soldiers have turned to drugs to escape the horrors of
fighting insurgents.

In one case, according to Stars and Stripes, the in-house US forces
newspaper, Sgt Michael Boudreaux was found with drugs, four bottles
of whiskey and 22 videos of Iraqi pornography. He received a seven
month confinement, was demoted to private and given a bad conduct
discharge.

In another case, Pte Emily Hamilton told a court martial that she
used a hashish pipe belonging to a colleague because "it helped me go
right to sleep". She was given a year's confinement and a bad conduct
discharge.

"Some of these young soldiers just can't handle the stress," said
Capt Christopher Krafchek, a military defence lawyer.

The majority of drug-users are in their teens or early 20s, and
sometimes get their drugs from local Iraqis while on patrol in
Baghdad.

Troops caught in possession of illegal substances are either jailed,
demoted or discharged from the forces.

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http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=30527

U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq aren't routinely tested for steroid use

By <mailto:jontzs [at] mail.estripes.osd.mil>Sandra Jontz, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Saturday, July 23, 2005

U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan submit to regular drug tests, but
are not routinely tested for steroid use, a potential problem that
surfaced recently after Italian police busted an international drug
smuggling ring whose prospective clients included U.S. troops in Iraq.

Even while deployed to a combat zone, the services follow the general
Defense Department practice of randomly testing 10 percent of a
military unit's members each month for drugs such as marijuana,
cocaine, heroin, and barbiturates, and designer drugs such as
Ecstasy, representatives from each of the services said.

But testing for steroids is done only when commanders specifically
request it, and to date, none have, said Col. Aaron Jacobs, chief
deputy medical examiner at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology's
Forensic Toxicology office in Washington.

The Navy will administer the $300 drug test on a sailor if the
command suspects steroid use, and after approval from the Navy's
Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention office in Millington, Tenn.,
spokeswoman Lt. Heidi Booth said.

On July 16, Italian police in Trieste arrested two Slovenian men and
broke up a drug trafficking operation worth about $2.4 million per
month. The ring mailed steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs
to clients around the world, including U.S. troops in Iraq who
ordered the drugs via the Internet, Italian investigators said.

The U.S. military's mail security precautions might have prevented
the drugs from being delivered; instead packages and envelopes, which
did not have return mailing addresses, were sent back to the Italian
post office. Postal officials alerted police after packages began to
accumulate, said Mario Bo, head of the criminal division.

Officials at the U.S. military command in Iraq said Tuesday they
would look into the issue, but by Friday still had no information to
provide.

Urine samples aren't tested downrange, but instead must be sent to a
DOD Forensic Drug Testing Laboratories in the States, Jacobs said.

Several troops and commanders contacted earlier this week by Stars
and Stripes said they were surprised by the news that deployed troops
might be ordering steroids, but one said there is speculation that
some soldiers are using.

"I go to the gym five, six days a week and have been continuously
since I've been in country and there are people who have been doing
the same who have gotten huge," said the infantry soldier, who asked
not to be identified for fear of reprisal from commanders and fellow
troops.

"I mean bigger than an average person would gain in such a short
time. There are rumors that float around, but it's all hearsay. I, as
well as others, suspect individuals to be taking steroids but
couldn't prove it."

However, soldiers may be bulking up by using commercially available
supplements.

High-protein shakes and supplements are incredibly popular downrange.
The huge canisters of the powder, for example, sell rapidly the
moment they hit shelves at several Army and Air Force Exchange
Service locations.

The protein/health supplements are available at the majority of AAFES
facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait and Djibouti, and are "an
extremely popular item downrange, but also sell well here in Europe,"
AAFES spokeswoman Debbie Byerly said.
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