Troops and drugs: new ILS. inquiry

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32458, 19 November 1970, Page 17

Troops and drugs: new ILS. inquiry

(N.Z. Press Association— Copyright) WASHINGTON, November 18. A United States Senate sub-committee has begun a new inquiry into drug abuse by American soldiers, and will take a hard look at one of the most abused intoxicants of all, alcohol.

Senator Harold Hughes (Democrat, Iowa) said at the opening hearing that the ovet all drug problem, including drinking, might be so serious as to threaten national security. . A similar ■ allegation was made by Senator Thomas Dodd (Democrat, Connecticut) during drug-abuse hearings by the sub-committee on juvenile delinquency. Defence Department officials concede that drugs are a problem but, in general, they deny that the nation’s defences are impaired as a result.

mine the dimension and nature of the drug problem in the armed services,” he said. Staff members had visited Vietnam, toured Army and Air Force bases in Thailand, talked to men along the demilitarised zone in Korea, and discussed the situation with psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers, the senator said, adding that the growing number of men in uniform using drugs represents a problem inseparably linked to drug-use in civilian life. “The unprecedented, epidemic growth of the problem everywhere in our society today poses a new and alarming threat to our public health and social stability, and, quite possibly, to our national security," he said.

Senator Hughes emphasised that the purpose of the inquiry was to find possible solutions, not publicity. “Our main objectives are to deter-