Canadian Armed Forces Military Personnel Instruction 14/06 – Canadian Armed Forces Applicant Pre-Enrolment Drug Use Policy

1. Identification

Date of Issue: 2006-08-10

Date of Modification: 2024-12-01

Application: This CMP Instruction applies to all Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) applicants processed by Canadian Forces Recruiting Group (CFRG) for enrolment after 1 January 2007

Supersession: Recruiting Directive 9/91

Approval Authority: Chief of Military Personnel (CMP)

Enquiries: Administrative Response Centre (ARC)

2. Definitions

Applicant (Postulant)

An individual is considered a CAF Applicant when he/she signs part M of the conditional offer of enrolment on the Canadian Forces Employment Application Form (CFEAF).

Drug (Drogue)

A controlled substance as defined in the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (1996, Chapter 19).

Any other substance the use of which can impair normal psychological or physical functioning (e.g., alcohol, volatile solvents).

Drug Abuse (Abus de drogues)

The use of any drug in a manner that deviates from the approved medical or social patterns within a given culture. The term conveys a notion of social disapproval and is not necessarily descriptive of any particular pattern of drug use or its potential adverse consequences. When this definition is applied to our Canadian society, all of the following can be seen as meeting the minimal criteria for inclusion in the term drug abuse.

• the use of any prohibited (i.e., illegal) drug;
• the use of any legal substance (e.g., volatile solvents) for other than its intended purpose in order to achieve a psychoactive effect (i.e., to change the user’s existing state in mood, sensation, consciousness, or other psychological or behavioural functions);
• the use of any therapeutic drug, including over-the-counter drugs, for other than its intended purpose;
• the intentional taking of any therapeutic drug in amounts greater than prescribed and/or the self-administration of any drug by routes other than medically approved;
• the excessive use of legal social drugs (i.e., alcohol, caffeine, tobacco); and
• the taking of two or more intoxicating substances in combination in order to obtain a more pleasurable or intense “high”.

Dependent Drug Use (Dépendance à la drogue)

Encountered in individuals who continue to use despite significant drug-related problems or negative consequences related to physical, mental, social, emotional, legal, economic, academic, or environmental issues (or combinations thereof). Drug dependence involves a user’s need for a drug (or drugs) in order to feel and function in a way that the user considers acceptable. Dependence refers to the users’ compelling need to use a drug for physical or psychological reasons, reflecting these two spheres of drug effect on the body as described below.

• Physical dependence is a state in which the body has adapted to, or become dependent on, the presence of the drug at a particular concentration, so that when the concentration falls (i.e., stop usage or reduce dose or frequency of use), the user experiences withdrawal signs and symptoms which vary depending on the drug, dose, frequency and duration of use, and the characteristics of the user; and
• Psychological dependence is a state in which stopping or abruptly reducing the dose of a given drug produces non-physical symptoms. It is characterized by emotional and mental preoccupation with the drugs effect and by a consistent craving for the drug. Craving is believed to be a major factor governing the continued self-administration of psychoactive drugs.

Experimental Drug Use (Consommation expérimentale de drogue)

Cases where a drug was used a few times and use was subsequently terminated. This category is confined to cases which involve not more than three episodes of use within a two-month period and not repeated.

Occasional Drug Use (Consommation occasionnelle de drogue)

Cases where individuals take a drug when it is offered but do not go out of their way to procure it, nor attempt to ensure a regular supply. More precisely, the occasional user is defined as one who consumes a drug less than three times a month.

Regular Drug Use (Consommation régulière de drogue)

A frequency of use of three or more times a month over any number of months.

3. Overview

Purpose

3.1 This Instruction outlines the principles and procedures governing the suitability, eligibility, and disposition of CAF applicants who have disclosed pre-enrolment drug use to recruiting staff.

Universality of Service

3.2 Every service member has a liability to perform any lawful duty. That liability includes the duty to be operationally employable and deployable. Members can serve in a variety of geographical locations and environmental conditions in any position where their contribution is integral to the operational effectiveness of a unit. Consequently, all members must be conditioned to cope with the stresses imposed by sustained operations under unfavourable working conditions and be sufficiently fit and healthy to respond on short notice.

3.3 While undertaking their duties, the military expertise of all CAF members is tempered with critical judgment skills concerning the appropriate use of military force. Critical judgment and expertise are increasingly required from more junior CAF members because in an organizationally sophisticated, fast-paced, and highly technical conflict environment, decisions taken at the lowest levels can have immediate and far-reaching implications.

Canadian Forces Drug Control Program

3.4 Notwithstanding the use of drugs for non-medicinal purposes in Canada today and the changing attitudes of some segments of society, the CAF policy outlined in QR&O Chapter 20, Canadian Forces Drug Control Program, states that no officer or non-commissioned member (NCM) must use any drug unless:

1. the member is authorized to use the drug by a qualified medical or dental practitioner for the purposes of medical treatment or dental care;
2. the drug is contained in a non-prescription medication used by the member in accordance with the instructions accompanying the medication; and
3. the member is required to use the drug in the course of military duties.

3.5 Military members must exhibit reliability and a broad responsibility to maintain the integrity and reputation of the profession of arms by ensuring that positive Canadian values and Canadian military ethos guide their individual actions regarding drugs.

3.6 The CF Drug Control Program works toward maintaining CAF operational readiness, member health and safety, security of property and information, reliability, discipline, cohesion, and morale. The Program is necessary, for example, due to the ever increasing sophistication of military equipment and procedures and the concomitant increased risk that members under the influence of drugs will be unable to handle the tasks with which they have been entrusted and upon which their safety and that of others will depend. Even when users are not under substance influence, there can be serious psychological and physical pressures on them which themselves could affect their performance adversely. From the Program and its essential elements of education, detection, treatment, and rehabilitation, it is clear, therefore, that involvement with drugs by CAF members will not be tolerated.

Pre-enrolment Drug Use Policy

3.7 A policy on pre-enrolment drug use is necessary for recruiting staff to assess, in part, whether applicants’ may be in potential violation of the universality of service principle. They will also assess applicants’ projected suitability, reliability, and organizational fit with regard to the overall potential that they may contravene the military Code of Service Discipline and the CF Drug Control Program. With regard to the Code, since most (e.g., alcohol, nicotine, caffeine excepted) non-medical drug use is illegal in Canada, consideration must also be taken of applicants’ regard for, and propensity to obey, legal direction and rules.

4. Operating Principles 

Canadian Human Rights Act

4.1 Recruiting staff must remain cognizant of the fact that the Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA) stipulates that one of the prohibited grounds of discrimination is applicant disability and perceived disability. Disability includes those applicants with a previous or existing dependence on alcohol or a drug. Perceived disability may include an employer’s perception that a person’s use of alcohol or drugs makes him or her unfit for work in the employer’s organization.

4.2 Section 15 of the CHRA states that a selection/hiring practice is not discriminatory if any refusal or exclusion to employment has been established by the employer to be based on a bona fide occupational requirement (BFOR). For the selection/hiring practice to be considered to be based on a BFOR, it must be established that accommodation of the needs of the applicants affected would impose undue hardship on the prospective employer considering health, safety, and cost. Subsection 15(9) of the CHRA is a special provision pertaining to the CAF which, in effect, states that the requirement of the CAF to accommodate applicants’ disabilities (e.g., drug/alcohol dependence) up to the point of undue hardship is subject to the universality of service principle. This principle is held to be a BFOR for membership in the CAF. Therefore, if applicants deemed to be disabled based on past or current drug/alcohol dependence cannot meet the universality of service principle during the selection process, refusal to enrol would not be seen as discriminatory.

Assessment Indicators

4.3 In support of determining suitability for military life and organizational fit, recruiting assessment guidelines and procedures have been developed for the selection process. Social psychological research supports the premise that past human behaviour is a reasonable indicator of potential future behaviour. That said, human behaviour is based on multiple variables ranging from individual ego strength and locus of control to social context and ones perception of consequences. Accordingly, the effort to gain an estimate of the general personality suitability of applicants in broad terms for service life needs to be based on a wide range of indicators. Collectively, information from such factors as personal/work history, leisure activities, drug use, education, criminal convictions, credit checks, reference letters, para-military experience, military knowledge, employment motivation, and expectations will all contribute to such assessments.

Reliability Screening Process

4.4 The assessment of applicants’ past or current drug use is a procedural part of the individual applicant’s reliability screening process, which, in turn, is a specific undertaking in the overall selection process. The reliability screening process is carried out to decide whether to grant applicants an enhanced reliability status (ERS) which is a mandatory condition of enrolment into the CAF. As well as assessing drug use, the reliability screening process requires other specific information. Recruiting staff must verify applicant personal data and relevant education, professional qualifications, employment data, and references, and initiate a Criminal Records Name Check and a credit check.

4.5 Applicant information gathered throughout the process will be collated by Military Career Counsellors (MCCs) and assessed with potential subsequent input from Unit Personnel Selection Officers and other relevant individuals. MCC assessments will result in recommendations that will be passed to the approving authorities who make the decision to grant an ERS. Approving authorities for conferral or denial of the ERS are recruiting centre commanding officers (COs), recruiting detachment commanders, and COs of enrolling units as indicated in National Defence Security Policy, Chapter 35, paragraph 40. Applicants denied an ERS will be eligible to reapply for entry into the CAF on completion of a one year waiting period.

5. References

Acts, Regulations, Central Agency Policies and Associated DAOD

• QR&O Chapter 20, Canadian Forces Drug Control Program
• DAOD 5019-3, Canadian Forces Drug Control Program

Other References

• National Defence Security Policy (this document can only be accessed on the DWAN)
• DAOD 5023-0, Universality of Service
• DAOD 5023-1, Minimum Operational Standards Related to Universality of Service
• Recruiting Directive 14/90 Reliability Checks – CF Enrolment (this document can only be accessed on the DWAN)
• Canadian Forces Non-Commissioned Member and Officer General Specifications (this document can only be accessed on the DWAN)
• Drugs and Drug Abuse Third Edition, Addiction Research Foundation (now the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health) (this document can only be accessed on the DWAN)
• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - Fourth Edition (this document can only be accessed on the DWAN)

6. Annex

1. Annex A – Recruitment Selection Process