This discussion is now closed.
Check out other Related discussions
- Becoming an pilot within the RAF
- RAF selection interview
- Application medical leaflet medically unfit appeal
- Joining infantry as an officer or squaddie
- RAF application and Travelling
- University Air Squadron FAQ (WIP)
- Can I delay of raf application
- RAF Pilot Qualifications
- RAF reserve and regular roles
- Will I get into the RAF with Level 4 Uni grades
- RAF Medical Officer
- Is doing an extra level 3 apprenticeship a bad idea after a levels?
- UK military work experience
- Which cadet force should I join
- Fire service / RAF
- Start dates for basic training
- Help needed!
- RMAS/RAF Cadet
- Private Pilot License in RAF
- Pilot
Drugs and the RAF
Scroll to see replies
For anyone who was wondering! The following are official test time spans for urine testing:
Alcohol 12 - 24 hours
Amphetamine 2 - 6 days
Anabolic Steroids 2 - 4 weeks
Benzodiazepines 7 - 10 days
Cannabis 2 - 7 days but up to 30 days for regular users
Cocaine / Crack 12 hours - 4 days
Diazepam 1 - 2 days
Ecstasy 2 - 4 days
GHB 12 - 24 hours
Heroin 1 - 2 days
Ketamine 5 - 7 days
LSD 2 - 3 days
Magic Mushrooms 5 - 7 days
Methadone 1 - 2 days
Opiates 5 - 7 days
PCP (Angel Dust) 3 - 8 days
Temazepam 1 - 2 days (longer if injected)
Alcohol 12 - 24 hours
Amphetamine 2 - 6 days
Anabolic Steroids 2 - 4 weeks
Benzodiazepines 7 - 10 days
Cannabis 2 - 7 days but up to 30 days for regular users
Cocaine / Crack 12 hours - 4 days
Diazepam 1 - 2 days
Ecstasy 2 - 4 days
GHB 12 - 24 hours
Heroin 1 - 2 days
Ketamine 5 - 7 days
LSD 2 - 3 days
Magic Mushrooms 5 - 7 days
Methadone 1 - 2 days
Opiates 5 - 7 days
PCP (Angel Dust) 3 - 8 days
Temazepam 1 - 2 days (longer if injected)
M!ke
Failure to produce is just as bad as being positive!
You can't fail to produce. You're taken into a room with a WO and his team and you're not allowed to leave until you've done. If it takes 14 hours (there's something very very wrong with you) you'll be there 14 hours.
LouE3D
Good point about hair... hair actually absorbes and stores all drugs that you ingest - thats paracetmol, calpol, gear, ectasy, heoine - whatever you take. There are drug tests run on horses using mane/tail hairs to check for doping and it can be done fore humans just as easily, however, isn't obviously a prefered method as some people, especially men, have quite short hair... may only be a few weeks old, so pretty pointless for long term checking...
If you're tested positive they take a hair sample too. If you wish to fight the result you can use your own hair sample. But they only take it if you test positive and decide to argue it.
Marzipan - 20 minutes, 2 hours for regular users.
You can't fail to produce. You're taken into a room with a WO and his team and you're not allowed to leave until you've done. If it takes 14 hours (there's something very very wrong with you) you'll be there 14 hours.
When I went to Aldershot for Army work experience at school, a soldier there was saying how he couldn't produce. So as you say, the WO takes you to a room, and basically feeds you water until you have to produce!
There is nothing clever about drugs. I don't want to work alongside people who use drugs - I want to know that everyone I work with is operating at the best of their abilities. At the end of the day, its not just their life or my life on the line, but their collegues and members of the public who they put at risk... and for the sake of what? Their own self indulgence? Great, everyone else gets screwed for them being iresponsible and selfish.
b16a2
When I went to Aldershot for Army work experience at school, a soldier there was saying how he couldn't produce. So as you say, the WO takes you to a room, and basically feeds you water until you have to produce!
They only give you water if you fail to produce after two hours. Then a drink every hour until you do pass. The record (according to the WO) is 14 hours, that's why I used that figure.
I got pulled up for it being too dark (was on the lash the night before... and the night before that.. and before that too!), and heard such comments as ''it's supposed to be piss not tar!'' - it was apparebtly (pfft) near black in colour
BlackHawk
Just because it can leave your system, doesn't mean you should take it. It's good that you haven't taken it in 6 months, but to be honest the RAF are going to lok for some commitment to not take it ever again.
100%
I have been informed that toxins remain in the follicles of your hair for ever. However hair only lives for roughly 6 years before it falls out. So effectively you're looking at 6 years, though I doubt you'll find them doing hair follicle tests though!
erm Ketamine was only made illegal on the 1st day of this year, you can't retrospectively break the law when the law changes. Hair tests only determine what you have taken in the last 90 days - if you are serious about the RAF you could keep clean for at least 90 days before you apply and then until you leave the RAF.
djmarkmclachlan
Really only 90 days? I thought it was longer aswell. Maybe it is ones nails and I'm getting confused. Oh well, don't do drugs and you've not got to worry.
The hair shows up drug use because the follicle produces the hair and is fed by blood and if that blood has odd chemicals in it the hair will have the same odd chemicals. So as hair grows, there are bands in the hair showing exactly when certain chemicals were in the blood. They can only use 3 months hair growth because after that it becomes quite inexact - the hair degrades a bit physically and external factors can alter its chemistry slightly (dying hair is an excellent way to mask evidence of drug use in hair, though you'll look like a nonce) so they only ever take 3 months growth from the very scalp upwards. The short answer is to abstain from drugs, but we've all been there I think.
If you admit to class A use in your interview at AFCO or OASC you are unlikely to proceed. Class B& C, provided you can explain it was one off and maintain that you are now anti drugs etc you will likely get a drugs waiver. This waiver will then sit in your dossier for life.
The RAF operate CDT, and you can expect to get tested approx once every 2 years on average. Refusal to produce a sample (you can do that and no you are not forced to wait and drink water until you do) will result in the assumption of guilt and you will be discharged. Producing a positive sample, you have the opportunity to provide an explanation and request for your B sample to be tested (at your own expense). After which you will then be discharged if your B sample shows the same (has in every B sample tested so far). If you do not have an outsatnding reason for drugs in your system then you are discharged also.
Common excuses that always fail:
- My drink was spiked
- I ate some cake in Amsterdam/Party/Friends and dont know what it was
- Some girl/boy I kissed put something in my mouth
- I was at a party where others were smoking Cannabis so it must be passive inhalation
- I was too drunk.
Now if you are under 21 and you test postive for cannabis (other Class C as well) then you may qualify for the Early Intervention Programme. If so, ie your CO endorses it (which has only ever happened once in the RAF) you attend a drugs rehab weekend, then get tested every time CDT pitches up for at least the next 5 years. You are placed on a Formal Warning and are one step from being kicked out.
Advice - tried Class A drugs - dont bother applying. Tried Class B or C then own up and get a drugs waiver. When you are in - dont bother trying drugs. Its simple
The RAF operate CDT, and you can expect to get tested approx once every 2 years on average. Refusal to produce a sample (you can do that and no you are not forced to wait and drink water until you do) will result in the assumption of guilt and you will be discharged. Producing a positive sample, you have the opportunity to provide an explanation and request for your B sample to be tested (at your own expense). After which you will then be discharged if your B sample shows the same (has in every B sample tested so far). If you do not have an outsatnding reason for drugs in your system then you are discharged also.
Common excuses that always fail:
- My drink was spiked
- I ate some cake in Amsterdam/Party/Friends and dont know what it was
- Some girl/boy I kissed put something in my mouth
- I was at a party where others were smoking Cannabis so it must be passive inhalation
- I was too drunk.
Now if you are under 21 and you test postive for cannabis (other Class C as well) then you may qualify for the Early Intervention Programme. If so, ie your CO endorses it (which has only ever happened once in the RAF) you attend a drugs rehab weekend, then get tested every time CDT pitches up for at least the next 5 years. You are placed on a Formal Warning and are one step from being kicked out.
Advice - tried Class A drugs - dont bother applying. Tried Class B or C then own up and get a drugs waiver. When you are in - dont bother trying drugs. Its simple
TomD
If you admit to class A use in your interview at AFCO or OASC you are unlikely to proceed. Class B& C, provided you can explain it was one off and maintain that you are now anti drugs etc you will likely get a drugs waiver. This waiver will then sit in your dossier for life.
The RAF operate CDT, and you can expect to get tested approx once every 2 years on average. Refusal to produce a sample (you can do that and no you are not forced to wait and drink water until you do) will result in the assumption of guilt and you will be discharged. Producing a positive sample, you have the opportunity to provide an explanation and request for your B sample to be tested (at your own expense). After which you will then be discharged if your B sample shows the same (has in every B sample tested so far). If you do not have an outsatnding reason for drugs in your system then you are discharged also.
Common excuses that always fail:
- My drink was spiked
- I ate some cake in Amsterdam/Party/Friends and dont know what it was
- Some girl/boy I kissed put something in my mouth
- I was at a party where others were smoking Cannabis so it must be passive inhalation
- I was too drunk.
Now if you are under 21 and you test postive for cannabis (other Class C as well) then you may qualify for the Early Intervention Programme. If so, ie your CO endorses it (which has only ever happened once in the RAF) you attend a drugs rehab weekend, then get tested every time CDT pitches up for at least the next 5 years. You are placed on a Formal Warning and are one step from being kicked out.
Advice - tried Class A drugs - dont bother applying. Tried Class B or C then own up and get a drugs waiver. When you are in - dont bother trying drugs. Its simple
The RAF operate CDT, and you can expect to get tested approx once every 2 years on average. Refusal to produce a sample (you can do that and no you are not forced to wait and drink water until you do) will result in the assumption of guilt and you will be discharged. Producing a positive sample, you have the opportunity to provide an explanation and request for your B sample to be tested (at your own expense). After which you will then be discharged if your B sample shows the same (has in every B sample tested so far). If you do not have an outsatnding reason for drugs in your system then you are discharged also.
Common excuses that always fail:
- My drink was spiked
- I ate some cake in Amsterdam/Party/Friends and dont know what it was
- Some girl/boy I kissed put something in my mouth
- I was at a party where others were smoking Cannabis so it must be passive inhalation
- I was too drunk.
Now if you are under 21 and you test postive for cannabis (other Class C as well) then you may qualify for the Early Intervention Programme. If so, ie your CO endorses it (which has only ever happened once in the RAF) you attend a drugs rehab weekend, then get tested every time CDT pitches up for at least the next 5 years. You are placed on a Formal Warning and are one step from being kicked out.
Advice - tried Class A drugs - dont bother applying. Tried Class B or C then own up and get a drugs waiver. When you are in - dont bother trying drugs. Its simple
But what if you tried class A years ago, there is no trace of it and you no longer wish to abuse drugs. Unless you admit it, what's the problem?
Related discussions
- Becoming an pilot within the RAF
- RAF selection interview
- Application medical leaflet medically unfit appeal
- Joining infantry as an officer or squaddie
- RAF application and Travelling
- University Air Squadron FAQ (WIP)
- Can I delay of raf application
- RAF Pilot Qualifications
- RAF reserve and regular roles
- Will I get into the RAF with Level 4 Uni grades
- RAF Medical Officer
- Is doing an extra level 3 apprenticeship a bad idea after a levels?
- UK military work experience
- Which cadet force should I join
- Fire service / RAF
- Start dates for basic training
- Help needed!
- RMAS/RAF Cadet
- Private Pilot License in RAF
- Pilot
Latest
Trending
Last reply 3 months ago
How can I go about appealing my army application after medically unfit report?Trending
Last reply 3 months ago
How can I go about appealing my army application after medically unfit report?
