Canadian Armed Forces Military Personnel Instruction 14/06 – Annexes – Canadian Armed Forces Applicant Pre-Enrolment Drug Use Policy
Annex A – Recruitment Selection Process
1. Assessment Procedures
Initial Applicant Information
1.1 As a start to the selection process, individuals will have a contact interview with a military recruiter in which they receive a package containing general information on the selection process, an application form, and a list of required documents. During the subsequent visit, they may have their basic eligibility assessed, be aptitude tested and be given conditional offers of employment (COE). If the COEs are accepted, applicants then will sign a form giving their consent for recruiting staff to gather specific personal information on them as part of their individual reliability screening process.
Applicant Suitability Pre-enrolment Substance Use Form
1.2 After signing consent forms, applicants can complete the Applicant Suitability Pre-enrolment Substance Use form administered by Military Career Counsellors (MCCs) and subsequently undertake medical and physical fitness assessments. As the MCC interview sessions with applicants (e.g., selection interviews) are the venues to discuss applicants’ disclosed pre-enrolment drug use, no questions concerning drug use are to be asked by recruiting staff prior to the administration of the Applicant Suitability Pre-Enrolment Substance Use form. Should applicants have any questions concerning their drug use or drugs in general prior to completing the form, recruiting staff responses will be limited to the fact that there is a CAF policy covering drug use and that the issue will be dealt with in subsequent MCC interview sessions.
1.3 After completing the substance forms the information will be assessed by MCCs who will then discuss the contents with the applicant. This confirmation/assessment interview will allow the establishment of rapport and a flow of more detailed information on applicants’ pre-enrolment drug use (subsequent MCC selection interviews will also be a venue in which their drug use may be further explored). After this interview session all applicants will continue with selection processing.
Note - The Applicant Suitability Pre-enrolment Substance Use form was introduced to CF Recruiting Centres in March, 2003. The form solicited information from applicants on their pre-enrolment drug use early in the recruiting process which was then reviewed to assess their suitability for further selection processing. The original intent of the form was to save recruiting personnel resources in the subsequent medical, interview, and enhanced reliability phases by screening out unsuitable applicant drug use cases at the earliest opportunity. After completing the form, applicants seen as unsuitable for further processing based on their pre-enrolment drug use would be counselled out of the selection process, thus denying enrolment.
Types of Drugs
1.4 For the purpose of easy reference and standardization, types of drugs are divided into the seven groups listed below. A table entitled DRUG GROUPS AND EXAMPLES is held by recruiting staff and used in the assessment of applicant drug use. The table shows a basic description of each drug group and provides examples for each group with some brand and street names.
- Group 1 - Cannabis
- Group 2 - Hallucinogens
- Group 3 - Opioids
- Group 4 - Sedative-Hypnotics and Anxiolytics
- Group 5 - Stimulants
- Group 6 - Steroids
- Group 7 - Psychiatric Medications
Information for Recruiting Medical Staff
1.5 If after an interview session, an MCC feels that an applicant is a past or current dependent drug user, the opinion of the Unit Personnel Selection Officer (UPSO) will be sought. If the UPSO concurs with the MCC’s assessment of past or current drug dependence, the drug use information on the applicant must be passed to the recruiting medical staff who will take it into consideration during the medical assessment phase. If after the medical assessment phase the applicant has been awarded employment limitations (due wholly or in part to the past or current drug dependency) and cannot meet the CF common enrolment medical standards or the applicable occupation standards, the applicant will not be enrolled. In this case, medical employment limitations would violate the Universality of Service principle and the decision to not enrol would not be seen as discriminatory.
1.6 MCCs may require disclosure of a past drug dependency problem to a point. That point is reached when the risk of relapse or recurrence on the part of a dependent user is no greater than the risk that a member of the general population will suffer a substance abuse problem. Expert evidence indicates that the cut-off point is six years of successful remission; therefore, MCCs must not question beyond six years of an applicant’s past with regard to his/her past drug dependency.
1.7 If during the post substance form assessment interview, applicants confirm or declare past or current hallucinogen use, the MCCs must take into consideration applicants’ past occurrences or potential occurrences of hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD), known colloquially as flashbacks. Research literature on HPPD/flashbacks indicates that this condition is very difficult to accurately diagnose medically in that the perceptual disturbance symptoms that the hallucinogen users present may be caused by other factors. These factors can include, but may not be limited to, visual epilepsies, migraines, delirium, strokes, brain tumours, dementia, schizophrenia, posttraumatic stress disorder, and severe anxiety and depression. Therefore, an applicant’s self-report of having HPPD or of having a flashback must not be taken by the MCC as being accurate. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – Fourth Edition contains the standardized operational criteria for HPPD that medical doctors use to diagnose the condition.
1.8 Drug use information on applicants who have used hallucinogens and report a past medical diagnoses of HPPD must be passed to the recruiting medical staff who will take it into consideration during the medical assessment phase. Medical staff will assess the impact of applicants’ hallucinogen use and HPPD occurrences in relation to their reliability and suitability for CF enrolment (i.e., are there employment limitations). For applicants who feel they have HPPD and feel they have experienced at least one flashback episode, but have never been medically diagnosed as having the condition, must also have that information passed to the recruiting medical staff for further consideration with regard to their suitability for military service.
1.9 As indicated, drug use information for assessed or self-reported dependent drug users and for some hallucinogen users must be passed to recruiting medical staff. As well, for other applicants, MCCs at their discretion after having consulted a UPSO, can pass any extensive and questionable drug use information that is based on a combination of type of drug(s) used, frequency of use, and when used to medical staff for their consideration during those applicants’ medical assessment phases.
Enhanced Reliability Status Assessment
1.10 If no medical limitations are awarded to the applicants whose drug use information was passed to medical staff for assessment, that information may then be further discussed and taken into consideration during the selection interviews conducted by MCCs. In the majority of cases, however, drug use disclosed by applicants (via the substance use form and subsequent MCC confirmation/assessment interviews) will typically only be further discussed and considered during the selection interviews (i.e., there was no need for the MCC to consult with a UPSO or to send the information to the medical staff).
1.11 Some information gathered during a reliability screening process will constitute necessary and sufficient grounds to deny applicants their ERS. Applicants who have an outstanding obligation to the judicial system of Canada or any other country are now not granted an ERS and are thus not eligible for enrolment until the obligation has been filled. In other cases the information can be sufficient but not in itself necessary grounds to deny an ERS. This would be the case, for example, with regard to negative information on a credit report, or the existence of a criminal record (with no pardon), or extensive and questionable past/current drug use. In these cases, MCCs will gather more in-depth information through an interview session before arriving at the recommendations to be passed to the approving authorities. For example, with regard to drug use, the MCC can provide information on an applicant’s attitude toward the drug use, the reason(s) for use, the extent to which the applicant has changed behaviour in this regard, the likely recurrence of use, and the potential effect the questionable use will have on the applicant’s overall military/job reliability, which in effect, encompasses personal safety and the safety/security of other military members and resources. The approving authority will take all this information into consideration in arriving at a decision to grant an ERS to the applicant.
1.12 Approving authorities may also need to collectively consider information from individual assessments derived from two or more of the sample cases noted above. For example, an applicant may have negative information on a credit check and questionable past/current drug use or may also have a criminal record. For the approving authority, the process will be the same; all pertinent applicant information regarding reliability and suitability will be taken into consideration in arriving at a decision to grant or deny an ERS. Applicants denied an ERS and thus enrolment into the CAF will be given the reason(s) why in an interview with an MCC. Those denied an ERS will be eligible to re-apply for entry into the CAF on completion of a one year waiting period.
2. Interview Session Guidelines
Military Career Counsellor Communication
2.1 Whenever MCCs are gathering information on applicants’ drug use they must communicate in a very tactful manner without embarrassing applicants or making them feel threatened or to act defensively. MCCs must not ask questions that lead applicants to particular answers and should use open-ended questions that attempt to get them to respond with other than simple one or two word answers. If applicants ask why MCCs, and the military as a whole, need to gather past drug use information, MCCs are to repeat that the information will be used as one factor to arrive at global assessments of their suitability, reliability, and organizational fit with the CAF.
2.2 The information in the Applicant Suitability Pre-enrolment Substance Use form will be the basis for the MCC interviews that follow directly after the forms have been completed. MCCs will confirm the information provided is what the applicants intended to report. Further, more in-depth attention needs to be given, for example, to applicants who confirm large amounts of drug use, or concurrent use of diverse types of drugs, or a very frequent use of a drug. For such extensive and questionable instances of drug use, MCCs must attempt to gather further information from the applicants on such issues as their attitudes toward the amount and/or type of drug used, the reason(s) for use, any negative impact of such use on the applicant and others, the extent to which the applicants have changed their behaviours regarding the use (if no changes have occurred, what do the applicants report as to the likelihood of them changing), and the likely recurrence of use.
2.3 MCCs will not counsel or pass judgement to applicants on their drug use during the confirmation/assessment interview sessions. They will be made aware of the fact that the CAF has a drug control program that will be discussed during a subsequent interview session. They are also to be told that the CAF will require their signed certifications that, in part, confirm that they have divulged all instances of drug use. Applicants will be told that their drug use may be further explored during any potential subsequent MCC interview sessions such as the selection interview. After the confirmation/assessment interview session applicants will be advised of the next step in their selection processing.
2.4 During applicants’ selection interviews, MCCs may ask further questions on their drug use, for example, if the need arises based on the relevancy of the use to other information reported. Applicants will be counselled on the Canadian Forces Drug Control Program during this interview session.
3. Counselling Applicants
Ineligible Applicants
3.1 Applicants may be found ineligible for enrolment into the CAF based on drug use behaviour that has led to the applicant being awarded medical employment limitations (i.e., applicant cannot meet the common enrolment medical standards for the CAF or the standards for the applicable occupation(s)). As well, the assessed reliability and potential fit of applicants for service life, based wholly or in part on their drug use will, in some cases, lead to the denial of an ERS and therefore enrolment ineligibility. These applicants, as well as those with employment limitations, will be counselled on their ineligible status in accordance with the established recruiting procedures for such cases.
3.2 Applicants for whom the ERS has been granted will be told that as members of the CAF, any drug use, service infractions or offences related to drugs will not be tolerated and will be considered as potential contraventions of the Drug Control Program and the Code of Service Discipline. The applicants will be advised that the Drug Control Program comprises a range of actions used to deter and detect prohibited drug use and drug infractions or offences. Included, in part, are individual reporting, enforcement, investigation, review of duties, drug testing, and disciplinary and/or administrative action. Administrative action can include release from the CAF. Applicants will be counselled that they must always remain cognizant of and uphold the tenets of the Drug Control Program throughout their careers, notwithstanding the prevailing attitudes towards drug use of various segments of Canadian society or other members of the CAF. To do otherwise and succumb to the potential pressures to participate in drug use will only bring discredit to the members and the CAF.
4. Documentation
Canadian Forces Applicant Assessment Forms
4.1 When a UPSO, upon the request of an MCC or CO, becomes involved in the assessment of applicants’ drug use for their potential suitability, reliability, and organizational fit, the concerns surrounding the MCCs’ and UPSOs’ assessments may be recorded on CF 283s (DND 2158), Canadian Forces Applicant Assessment forms.
4.2 A full account of the drug use reported by applicants must be recorded in the applicable section of their respective CF 283s. If the information is extensive an addendum can be used. For every drug used by applicants, the names, frequencies of use, when used, and the reasons or circumstances surrounding the use must be recorded. Information on the applicable Applicant Suitability Pre-Enrolment Substance Use forms can be used as a guide when recording the information. The closing statement of the account may indicate that applicants claimed this information to be complete accounts of their pre-enrolment drug use. To ensure the statements are not equivocal, they must be worded in a positive manner. A statement such as "The applicant reported that he had engaged in no other drug use" is acceptable, whereas "The applicant did not report any other drug use" is not acceptable since the latter statement could indicate interviewers asked questions concerning only one type of drug.