The Use and Abuse of Social Drugs,

In terms of mission, organization and discipline, military forces constitute a unique social element in the societies. Because of this, the military members have a different sort of life style which creates unique problems for dealing with the social and performance consequences of the use of social drugs. For example, social drugs are used in groups and tend to bind the co-users together. The resultant group cohesion may be desirable however, the effects of drug use and abuse upon discipline etc., may be undesirable. Further, these social drugs can potentially have an unfavorable impact upon the fitness of troops and upon the capacity of soldiers to perform certain kinds of tasks are directly effected by the use of social drugs. These papers consider only a few of the potential effects of drugs upon unit integrity, fitness and readiness within the military. The presentations highlight how thinking about the problem of detection, diagnosis and management of alcohol abuse and illicit drug use are undergoing change as a result of new research and new technology. The use of a combination of self report instruments, careful history taken from the patient and his associates and an array of biochemical determinations will undoubtedly be further refined as new biochemical and physiologic tests are standardized for epidemiological and clinical use.