A Half-Won War

"Things go better with coke"

For the past two years, the U.S. Army and the West German government have cooperated in a campaign against a tide of hard-drug use that has threatened to engulf both German youth and U.S. military personnel. In 1980 West German police seized a record 263 kilograms of heroin in raids across the country. Last year a sweep of one 15,000-strong U.S. military installation near Frankfurt resulted in the capture of $4 million worth of mostly marijuana and hashish and arrest of 146 U.S. soldiers. Another operation in northwest Germany netted 44 drug offenders, 18 of them U.S. soldiers. Military police seized 15.3 grams of heroin, 805 LSD tablets and 8,990 amphetamine pills. But they recovered only small amounts of hashish from the Americans arrested. Indeed, the joint U.S.-West German efforts have now begun to pay off --sort of. According to the latest Army figures, the number of soldiers caught using dangerous drugs like heroin has dropped an impressive 40% since last year. But there is a major catch: marijuana and cocaine use is soaring.

Though Army officials are heartened by the sharp decline in heroin use, they are plainly concerned about the increased popularity of softer drugs in the ranks. And with good reason. Last year courts-martial connected with cocaine, marijuana and hashish trafficking or use jumped an eye-opening 122%. The new drug of particular preference among U.S. servicemen? Cocaine, known in the street vernacular as coke.

"The men are hooked on the idea that I things go better with coke," cracks a U.S. drug-control officer. He theorizes that only the astronomical price (currently $30 for .03 gram) is keeping even greater cocaine use in check. Worries another: "As demand grows, smuggling will increase, prices will drop and usage will probably increase. Stories about cocaine's popularity in the States don't help either."

Even more worrisome is the Army's not so foolproof method of detecting cocaine use, which consists of descending on a unit without warning to administer urine tests on a spot basis. The tests are supposed to detect the presence of benzoylecgonine, a component of the drug. The system, like many an effective military operation, relies on surprise. Unfortunately, because of lax security in scheduling the tests, that element is not always present. Says one troubled officer: "In some places the troops find out through the grapevine about a urine test five days ahead of time. You can get most anything out of your system with that kind of lead time. We aren't close to winning any drug war yet." qed

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