According to an article from Army Times, the Army news source, the Army has started to take notice of the rampant use of drugs and alcohol in the ranks. The article attributes this largely to commanders who are failing to take control or the worsening situation to get people into addiction treatment centers.

The Army now hopes to get offenders into treatment. They are staring their crackdown slowly, but getting started is half the battle. “That could mean increased inspections of barracks rooms and more visits by leaders to soldiers’ off-post homes to make cursory evaluations of their living conditions.”

Soldiers who are having urine tests coming back positive can soon expect stricter penalties. The problem with substance abuse has come to light after the Army Vice Chief of Staff Peter Chiarelli made an internal method. This is being combined with a larger initiative launched in April to look into the suicide rates of soldiers.

The problem is, according to the article, is that soldiers who are testing positive in multiple urine tests are not being referred for treatment. Instead only about 70 percent of those tested go on and receive treatment for one addiction, or dual diagnosis treatment.

Positive urine test results are growing steadily. And alcohol continues to be a problem for soldiers. In a Department of Defense study from 2005, it found that nearly 25 percent of soldiers are heavy drinkers.

Alcohol is among the reasons why a soldier may commit suicide. Along with other factors such as relationship problems, financial hardship or pending legal action.

“The incidence of alcohol abuse is detected differently than that for drugs, usually by military police or local police outside post, for driving under the influence or in observations by peers.”

So soldiers could go without being found out that they indeed do have a problem for longer periods of time.