House of Lords written question – answered at on 17 April 2007.
Lord Garden
Spokesperson in the Lords, Defence
asked Her Majesty's Government:
How many random drug tests were performed on military personnel in 2006; how many of these were positive, and for which drugs or combination of drugs.
Lord Drayson
Minister of State, Ministry of Defence, Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Defence Equipment and Support)
A total of 129,888 random drug tests were performed on military personnel in 2006, of which 844 were positive (0.65 per cent). The breakdown showing drugs or combination of drugs detected for each service, and for the Armed Forces as a whole, is shown in the table below.
| 2006 | Royal Navy | Army | Royal Air Force | Armed Forces |
| Number of random tests performed on military personnel | 12,505 | 104,499 | 12,884 | 129,888 |
| Number of personnel testing positive (percentage of tests carried out) | 57 (0.46%) | 769 (0.74%) | 18 (0.14%) | 844 (0.65%) |
| Drug or combination of drug involved: | (percentage of positive tests) | |||
| Heroin | 1 | 1 | 2 (0.24%) | |
| Cocaine | 35 | 340 | 8 | 383 (45.4%) |
| Cocaine/Ecstasy | 34 | 2 | 36 (4.3%) | |
| Cocaine/Ecstasy/Amphetamine | 3 | 3 (0.36%) | ||
| Cocaine/Ecstasy/Cannabis | 6 | 6 (0.71%) | ||
| Cocaine/Amphetamine | 6 | 6 (0.71%) | ||
| Cocaine/Amphetamine/Cannabis | 1 | 1 (0.12%) | ||
| Cocaine/Cannabis | 33 | 33 (3.9%) | ||
| Ecstasy | 9 | 73 | 2 | 84 (10.0%) |
| Ecstasy/Amphetamine | 9 | 9 (1.1%) | ||
| Ecstasy/Amphetamine/Cannabis | 3 | 3 (0.36%) | ||
| Ecstasy/Cannabis | 10 | 10 (1.2%) | ||
| Cannabis | 11 | 221 | 4 | 236 (28.0%) |
| Amphetamine | 15 | 15 | 15 (1.8%) | |
| Amphetamine/Cannabis | 4 | 4 (0.47%) | ||
| Benzodiazephine | 1 | 10 | 2 | 13 (1.57%) |
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