DoD seeks new test to bust spice users - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

DoD seeks new test to bust spice users

SAN DIEGO — The Defense Department is teaming up with the National Institute on Drug Abuse to develop a department-wide method of catching service members who use synthetic marijuana, also known as spice.

The aim is to develop better urinalysis testing — either random or targeted — for all the services to use, according to a source who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The services now only screen to confirm suspected use and do not test randomly.

The new spice study was initiated earlier this year by the office of the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness and the NIDA, a Pentagon spokeswoman confirmed. The goal is “to identify and address gaps in existing technology in the screening for synthetic marijuana-like products,” said Cynthia Smith, the spokeswoman. “The joint DoD-NIDA study is to offer potential solutions for the possible addition of synthetic marijuana-like compounds found in ‘spice’ to the DoD panel of tested drugs.” The study would ensure a unified effort and route spice screenings through the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System.

Marilyn Huestis, NIDA’s chemistry and metabolic chief, confirmed that the organization has an interagency agreement with DoD. She did not know how soon a test could be developed.

Researchers began the study in June to determine screening procedures, testing parameters and “the more appropriate windows of detection ... and what those detection windows should be,” Huestis said. The work may include alternate ways to screen for the synthetic chemicals, such as testing orally.

Earlier this year, the Air Force began testing for spice as part of its regular screening for illicit drugs. But even as the Navy and Marine Corps have pushed strong anti-spice public service messages, Navy Drug Screening Laboratories, which routinely handle Navy and Marine Corps testing for illicit substances, don’t test for synthetic cannabinoids, according to the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. Only in cases in which there is an active criminal investigation involving a sailor or Marine suspected of violating the Navy Department’s no-drug regulations would a urine test be done to screen for spice.

Right now, with no active testing program in place, general drug tests or sweeps of sailors do not detect spice and other designer substances, said Capt. Cappy Surette, a BUMED spokesman.

“Navy and Marine Corps commanders can have urine samples tested for several of the compounds found in spicelike products at [AFMES] when the sample has been collected in conjunction with an ongoing investigation” by agencies, including Naval Criminal Investigative Service and Criminal Investigative Division, Surette said.

A positive urinalysis isn’t required to kick out sailors found to use spice; they usually are punished or separated from the service for being caught with or confessing to using spice.

Navy officials this year upped the volume on the service’s anti-spice campaign with new messages, videos and posters touting the dangerous health effects of using cannabinoids. “Use of these products is not good for the health or careers of our people and effects unit readiness,” Surette said.

“We have been aggressively communicating the negative health effects of spice, because it isn’t well-known,” he said. “There are misconceptions that the products are freely available and nothing is going to happen to you.”

In March, the Drug Enforcement Agency issued a ban on several chemicals used in making the synthetic pot, making use or possession of spice illegal under federal law. But in recent months, scores of sailors, including several dozen assigned to two aircraft carriers in San Diego, have been caught using or selling spice and subsequently were being processed out.