Drug & Alcohol Crimes

Some states now allow medical marijuana and many have even started to allow the recreational use or decriminalization of the drug. This, however, does not prevent military members from prosecution or discharge from their respective service for marijuana use because it is still illegal under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Furthermore, the military takes a hard stance on the use of harder drugs such as cocaine or opiates. In many cases, service members with any amount of harder drugs in their system will face trial by court-martial. Most military members know that they have some reduced rights when they joined the military. One example of those reduced rights is the command’s ability to force military members to participate in random urinalysis. The command is allowed to do this under the guise of “safety” and “mission readiness.” Legally, the command calls the urinalysis an inspection. Practically speaking, however, the command uses the intrusion to search for evidence of a crime that can be used against the service member at a later date.