{"id":9259,"date":"2011-02-11T00:30:26","date_gmt":"2011-02-11T05:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=9259"},"modified":"2011-02-13T23:10:59","modified_gmt":"2011-02-14T04:10:59","slug":"sailors-cadets-midshipmen-discharged-for-using-spice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2011\/02\/11\/sailors-cadets-midshipmen-discharged-for-using-spice\/","title":{"rendered":"Sailors, Cadets, Midshipmen Discharged for Using “Spice”"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are often long discussions on the military’s ability to influence or govern the private conduct of its members — whether over issues of alcohol, chewing tobacco<\/a>, smoking<\/a>, divorce<\/a>, sexuality, or other aspects of what many people consider behavior unrelated to “official” conduct.\u00a0 As has been shown in many cases<\/a>, the military can (and does) regulate the behavior of its troops, even when potential restrictions may be entirely legal and permissible in civilian life.<\/p>\n

The use of “spice,” which is reportedly unregulated and commonly available in smoke shops and related retail outlets, is one such example.\u00a0 While it may be entirely legal for a civilian to purchase and “use” spice, which is described as a “synthetic marijuana” with components difficult to detect with normal drug tests, most military members are now banned from possessing, using, or distributing the substance — just as if it was any other illegal drug.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, military punishments for spice seem to repeatedly occur in groups, almost as if a “drug ring” has been busted and kicked out.<\/p>\n

The USS Bataan<\/em> is said to have discharged 16 sailors<\/a> for “using or dealing” the substance.<\/p>\n

According to the Navy Times<\/em>, the US Naval Academy recently expelled seven midshipmen<\/a> for “use or possession” of spice.\u00a0 A confiscated notebook<\/a> reportedly detailed the design of a veritable spice society at Annapolis.<\/p>\n

The Air Force Academy is reportedly investigating as many as 25 cadets<\/a> for the same offense, after having already discharged five.\u00a0 An Air Force Academy press release<\/a> indicated that it wasn’t merely drug use at issue:\u00a0 it was character:<\/em><\/p>\n

“These recent separations and the use of Spice by a few of our cadets is not the behavior we expect of America’s future Air Force and world leaders, and is not reflective of the highest standards we hold true to everyday,” said Brig. Gen. Richard Clark, USAFA Commandant of Cadets. “Ultimately, we are protecting our primary mission: developing leaders of character.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As in other cases, the military has made a judgment on the appropriate conduct of its troops, judging that certain behaviors are inconsistent with the high standards of character required for military service — even if those behaviors are currently permitted in society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are often long discussions on the military’s ability to influence or govern the private conduct of its members — whether over issues of alcohol, chewing tobacco, smoking, divorce, sexuality, or other aspects of what many people consider behavior unrelated to “official” conduct.\u00a0 As has been shown in many cases, the military can (and does) regulate the behavior of its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[134,133,2,36,705,65,473,1406],"class_list":["post-9259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fighter-pilot","tag-air-force","tag-annapolis","tag-military","tag-navy","tag-spice","tag-usafa","tag-usna","tag-uss-bataan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9259\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}