The Israeli military may ease its stringent ban on the consumption of light drugs, even as the Israeli Police is also weighing a similar policy change.
The daily Haaretz has learned that the army is considering a more lenient approach towards first-time offenders caught using light drugs off base. If adopted, the new guidelines would no longer mandate automatic prosecution of such cases.
Other steps being examined would allow soldiers caught using drugs to undergo rehabilitation and return to serve in their units.
Currently, soldiers found in possession of drugs, even smoking pot while on leave, are prosecuted. If convicted, they have a criminal record which can only be expunged after three and a-half years with a presidential pardon.
According to army figures for 2014, obtained by Haaretz, 62 percent of all prosecutions that were unrelated to unauthorized absences or traffic offenses related to possession or consumption of drugs.
The military advocate general, Maj. Gen. Danny Efroni, said recently that the army cannot tolerate the consumption of banned substances that can affect the performance of its soldiers. But he also held out a possible change in handling such cases.
“The question is whether our past responses to this phenomenon are effective and relevant today,” he asked. “Since we have to prioritize, perhaps enforcement should focus more on cases that have bearing on military service, rather than on cases that may be illegal but are not enforced by civilian authorities,” he said, according toHaaretz.
Dr. Ido Magen, a biologist who studied the use of marijuana, argues that use of the drug does not affect performance given that its effects wear off within hours.
“The army considers its soldiers to be responsible,” Magen told Haaretz. “It puts weapons in their hands and allows them to consume alcohol on weekends. If it allows that, believing that it doesn’t affect their functioning, this means that it’s OK, the army isn’t collapsing. Why then does it consider that smoking marijuana will affect them?”
He called on the army to leave law enforcement in cases of consuming drugs off base to civilian authorities. “If the police find a soldier smoking pot when he’s off duty, let them handle the issue. The army gives a harsher interpretation to civil law, and I don’t think there is any point in that.”
