A DEFENCE Forces airman who claimed a positive drugs test in his case was a result, not of his smoking cannabis but rather being in a car with two friends who were smoking cannabis, has lost a High Court challenge to his discharge from the Army.
David Rawson (21) denied he was smoking cannabis and argued he was given no opportunity, before his discharge was recommended, to call evidence in relation to the possibility of a false positive test from passive smoking.
Mr Rawson, Carrow Road, Drimnagh, Dublin, had sought to quash the discharge in judicial review proceedings against the Minister for Defence.
The case arose after he was subject to a random compulsory test at Casement Aerodrome in November 2006 and tested positive.
Mr Justice John Hedigan said compulsory random drug testing was introduced in the Defence Forces in January 2002. Mr Rawson joined as a recruit on September 4th, 2006, and underwent his training at the Military Training School, Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnel, which included an awareness programme on drugs.
On November 27th, 2006, he underwent a random drug test and provided a urine sample. He was notified he had tested positive on December 11th and was subsequently advised he was liable for discharge on January 10th, 2007. On January 26th, 2007, the general officer commanding decided he should be discharged with immediate effect.
Mr Justice Hedigan said the Minister for Defence was dealing with a situation where members of the Defence Forces were likely to be in control of lethal weaponry and it was incumbent upon the armed forces to set the highest standards for such members.
He said the Army could have chosen a zero tolerance level but chose a certain level in order to make allowance for the possibility of entirely innocent and unintended passive smoking.
It did this because it believed the use of cannabis or any other controlled drug was entirely incompatible with membership of the Defence Forces.
The judge said the Army correctly in his view allowed a low level cut-off to provide for the possibility of some level of passive smoking. In Mr Rawson's case, the test reading was more than double the cut-off point. Mr Rawson said this was due to the presence in his car of friends smoking cannabis.
The judge said he believed there were ample grounds for the decision reached in this case to discharge Mr Rawson. He dismissed the claim.