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HOUSTON TV REPORT SHOWS DRUG USERS BEING

USHERED INTO MILITARY SERVICE -- "If they

don't pass the screening here, no harm,

no foul. We throw it away."

 

Undercover video from this report.

 

Be sure to view this video at the link below.

Story here... http://www.click2houston.com/
investigates/10904749/detail.html?taf=hou

Story below:

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Undercover Video Shows Recruiters Downplaying Drug Tests

Investigation: Drug Users Ushered Into Military Service

HOUSTON -- Note: The following story is a verbatim transcript of an Investigators story that aired on Thursday, Feb. 1, 2007, on KPRC Local 2 at 10 p.m.

Tonight, Local 2 investigates a new danger for U.S. troops in Iraqi war zones. Our hidden cameras uncover how drug users and even addicts are being ushered into military service as tens of thousands of new troops are being sent to Iraq.

KPRC Local 2 investigative reporter Stephen Dean's investigation is leading to action in the nation's capital.

Congress and the Pentagon are now reacting to our investigation. We've been sending our hidden cameras in with people who want to be soldiers, and when they get into these recruiting offices, we found they're being told a drug problem may be no problem at all. Recruiters are even helping people to avoid some of the drug testing.

Just minutes into our hidden camera visits to military recruiting offices, we found Army recruiters describing a urine test packet for prospective solders. Our Local 2 Investigates producer is told if he fails this drug test, he can still get into the Army.

Army Recruiter #1: "We got some people that been smoking … and in a week or so … but it depends on how much activity they do."

KPRC: "Yeah."

Army Recruiter #2: "It depends on how much you've done it in the past, too."

KPRC: "OK."

Army Recruiter #2: "How frequent -- like a person that do it every day, every day. He's probably going to need more than 23 days."

Army Recruiter #1 "Yeah, because he's an habitual user."

That's right. A habitual drug user if he's positive for drugs -- it's called testing "hot."

Twenty-three days, the recruit is told, and all the drugs should be out of his system. All over the Houston area, our hidden cameras found recruiters telling would-be soldiers a positive drug test is no big deal.

Army Recruiter #1: "I would not send you down to join the Army if you tested in this office right now and you came up hot."

KPRC: "Yeah."

Army Recruiter #1: "I would not send you down there."

KPRC: "OK."

Army Recruiter #1: "I'd tell you no. We'd give you something."

KPRC: "You'd tell me to wait."

Army Recruiter #1: "We'd tell you what to go get to try to clean your system and try to tell you to hold off and wait."

KPRC: "OK."

Army Recruiter #1: "Wait until you clean your system out."

With President Bush needing 20,000 fresh troops to send for battle in Iraq, we found it's not just pot smokers, but even cocaine users being offered to retake the Army's drug test -- a prescreening in the recruiter's office -- as many times as it takes.

A Houston-area Navy recruiter had the same message.

Navy Recruiter: "If they don't pass the screening here, no harm, no foul. We throw it away. We tell you to come back in another few weeks, and you take it again."

We shared our hidden camera investigation with Larry Korb, an assistant defense secretary for President Reagan.

"You're taking people who probably are using drugs and you are telling them how they can beat the test, not beat the drug problem," Korb said.

Korb says we caught the military helping drug addicts to potentially make it onto the front lines.

"People who are actually using drugs, you get them through the test, are more likely than someone else to go back to using them," Korb said.

A 17-year-old high school senior also wore a hidden camera as she visits an Army recruiter near Intercontinental Airport.

Teen "I have a problem, I guess."

Army Recruiter #3: "Do your mom and dad know about it?"

Teen: "Hmmmm."

Army Recruiter #3: "How long you been using?"

She tells the recruiter she wants to join the Army even though she's been using drugs constantly since middle school.

Army Recruiter #3: "Here's the small test. Fail this one, then drink more water and come back and see me in a couple days and see if you're clean before we send you downtown."

"Not only does he coach her on flushing the drugs out with water, but after she'd put on a uniform, he tells her future drug tests to watch out for," KPRC investigative reporter Stephen Dean reported.

Army Recruiter #3: "When you ship off, you won't get tested again until you get to basic."

"I would not be on the front lines with someone who is a habitual drug user, no. I've seen the tape, and the tape itself concerns me. And I can tell you as a leader, it absolutely concerns me," said Lt. Col. Troy Reeves, U.S. Army recruiting commander.

Reeves is the commander over Army recruiting in all of southeast Texas. Reeves insists the Army is not lowering its standards, but he promises fast action to fix what Local 2 Investigates uncovered.

"Based on some of what I've seen, if it's being encouraged that if you do drugs, there's a way to bypass the system, absolutely the message is that will not happen, and we're going to take care of those individuals," Reeves said.

The Army's nationwide recruiting leader also wrote us a letter, promising action because of what we found.

And tonight, the Navy responded to its recruiter we caught on tape, saying positive drug tests will just be thrown out.

The Navy says drug use is not tolerated, but it doesn't want to disqualify people who test positive because of a one-time use.

Unlike the Army, the Navy says anyone who tests positive once they are tested downtown at enlisting is barred from joining the program forever.

If you have a news tip or question for KPRC Local 2 Investigates, drop them an e-mail or call their tipline at (713) 223-TIPS (8477).

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Larry Scott  --