Sailor cleared of drug charges
Washington Post‘s Robert McCartney writes about Graciela Saraiva, who was an enlisted sailor a few years back when she popped hot on a piss test. Apparently, she was on prescription pain killers for some recent dental work and the Navy knew that when they booted her for the urinalysis results. After three years, the Navy has corrected her records and is willing to allow her back into the Navy;
“I’m so excited. I’m really relieved that it’s finally over,” Saraiva said. She may try to rejoin the military, possibly as an officer, when she graduates from college in a year or two.
The Navy kicked out Saraiva, a junior logistics specialist (E-3 rating), after her urine tested positive for codeine and morphine. It wouldn’t let her back, even after it conceded that she failed the test only because she was taking a prescription painkiller after oral surgery.
Saraiva credits media attention, here and elsewhere, for reversing the decision — and the Navy memo admitted as much. It said the Navy didn’t look good barring her reenlistment while conceding that she hadn’t abused drugs.
McCartney blames recent policy changes which make the services more eager to spit out military personnel than to retain their expertise using minor, or as in this case, nonexistent, offenses to meet DoD cuts in spending. Of course, this has happened before. I remember in the early 80s a DWI some time during a soldier’s last enlistment would earn him a bar to reenlistment, prior to that, a DWI was treated like a parking ticket. The overweight program, after six years of waiverable excuses was suddenly enforced – we lost a lot of Vietnam experience on that one.
But, Ms. Saraiva’s situation is totally beyond the limits of common sense. Should troops avoid taking medication prescribed by their military doctors just to avoid popping hot? Apparently, the troops are guilty until they prove their innocence under the military’s administrative system. I’m glad that this worked out for Ms. Saraiva, but I have to think there are more cases out there like this who don’t have the benefit of the Washington Post’s megaphone.
Thanks to Chief Tango for the link.
Category: Navy, Veterans Issues
Seems like pieces of the story are missing; I recall if you were on prescription medication during UA, all that was needed is proof of the prescription?
Same goes with the other example in the article, the ROTC drug incident. He disclosed it but didn’t get a waiver? Disclosed it to who? It must not have been listed in the paperwork.
zero defects, zero tolerance. gotta love it.
Took many, many drug tests over the years. Seems like they always asked if you were taking anything, prescription or otherwise, which might cause a positive result. The only time I was, or thought maybe, I had the prescribed meds in my pocket and produced them prior to taking the specimen cup.
This case was just too stupid for words.
They are no longer allowed to ask. It’s an invasion of privacy and medical confidentiality. What is supposed to happen now, is that if you pop hot, your medical records are AUTOMATICALLY screened for opiate prescription history BEFORE the Command starts to throw the book at you. In this case, neither of those things happened and the wheels of bureaucracy ground on their merry way.
The Navy owes this women much more than an apology. If her lawyer does not recognize that, she needs another lawyer. Can you say back pay and college tuition. What a CF.
Something is not right about that. The last time I ran a “piss test”, we read off the verbiage that stated that you do not need to pre-list what meds you’re on and that if you came up “hot” they would then check your records and ask for a prescription.
We had one in my unit come up hot for Oxy, and they produced the prescription which was sent up with the paperwork. It came back closed with no action.
Not that we expected to see anything as we have had people come up hot for pot, meth, and heroin and still have their chapter packets sent back with no action. (this is the Army Reserves)
I’ve got 17 names I would love to discharge OTH or worse, but we keep getting packets kicked back, standards changed, delayed, etc. To the point I have some Non-partisipants who we have not seen in over two years. Yet here a decent Sailor gets kicked out for taking medication they were prescribed! Who ever that person is needs to be transferred to my TEC to get the ball rolling on our real dirt bags.
In the Army anf hot result goes to a Medical Review Officer who’s looks @ perscriptions issues via the Army medical system… and also talks to Soldiers about off-base perscriptions….. had one of my troops show up hot after off-post dental…. after ilthe perscription was verified… nothing every happened…. sounds like a) Navy screwed up or b) doesn’t have a similar process in place.
Something does not sound right about this.
The last 5-6 years, some medical commands have been telling sailors to put “see medical records” in the Rx block of the Drug Screen form in lieu of listing the meds they’re on.
The reason being, since your name is on the form, (and even if it isn’t, the next person behind you might know who you are) tying a med to a name is a breach of Personal Health Information (HIPAA, as it were). Imagine a disgruntled command XO finding out the CO is on anti-depressive medication, then leaking to the base CO or the regional commander that the CO ain’t acting right (yeah, it happened). XO fleets up to CO, CO’s career over.
After 36 years, my impression is that the Navy will do what the Navy thinks it can get away with. I spent 10+ years on a BCNR request. After kicking the can for that long, the Navy finally admitted they had made an error in my case, but correcting it would only benefit me, not the Navy, so they let it go (although they did thank me for pointing out the error).
A couple of years later, I got Level III Acquisition Certification (PM) from DAU. I was in a joint PM IT acquisition billet and got an Army authorization since the Navy Supply Corps wouldn’t approve a Navy MSC officer to take the classes necessary for a Level III cert. That personal initiative got me a 3.0 in Military Bearing, right before the 0-6 board. It took me 18 months to get it corrected, but way too late to help me out.
When I retired in 2012, a DWI was an auto-bust for E-6 and below, with the idea being to get them off active duty ASAP. My CO would bust an E-5/6 to get them at HYT, then admin sep them. If it were an E-7 or higher, she would “encourage” them to retire or face court martial. DWI for an officer was already a career killer by then.
I think at this point, she’d be better fighting for back pay, college tuition and an Honorable Discharge instead of thinking of going back into the Navy.
I knew a cop who was as straight as an arrow. This guy didn’t drink or do drugs. I never heard him cuss. He was cop of the year in a large dept and was rising through the ranks. After one promotion, he was piss tested and the test was positive. This guy was beside himself, knowing the test HAD to be wrong. It wasn’t. It turned out that a couple of rolls covered in poppy seeds caused the positive and he was good to go.
Learned two things today – poppy seeds can cause one to piss hot, and HIPAA with snafus can cause one to piss hot.
Glad my UA days are behind me.
Yep, Pat, and I keep forgetting that I can now eat things with poppy seeds! They might even be something good to keep around in case one needs a quick pain killer?
Feel sorry for her. I popped for oxy in 1986 after dental surgery. The first thing they did was read me my rights and take my weapons card. I got the stink eye for a week or so until dental cleared it up. The company commander was saying I was a druggie because he thought that I popped for heroin. The kick in the balls was I had to go to a drug class. If they interviewed you and you had a problem or popped you went for rehab. If they interviewed you and you had no problem the still sent you for “education”. It was a civilian shop who simply justified their existence by putting as many people they could in there. Pretty much the entire group was at a loss to why I was there, because I had no exciting drug or alcohol stories,
Remember the middle 70’s? Most sailors got at least 3 strikes before discharge. I was the Drug/Alcohol Counselor for a mid size command and hated every minute of it.
I hate anonymous comments. That was me and I did not understand the sign up. I will be known as TAR YNC RETIRED
In my experience, it’s more a mark against her CO and his legal team than anything. Though Big Navy should have caught it at the review board prior to discharge. Tripler is notorious for not updating medical records with meds. So, if someone at my command pops, and it’s a prescription painkiller, or something like that, first thing our JAG does is get the person to come in and verify it wasn’t prescribed if it’s not in the med record. 9/10 times the Sailor is safe.
Of course my husband’s reserve support tried to drum a reservist out even though he had the proper paperwork because it was a civilian doctor. He filed several legal complaints against the NOSC and the NOSC CO. They suddenly dropped the discharge proceedings.
A bit off-topic but I recall that in the mid 80s a shit-load of guys caught a helluva break when they found out the Oakland Lab was compromised. I know personally of two guys who ended up retiring as Staff NCOs at 20 who were almost given OTHs as Lcpls at 4 years in.
I once popped hot because I’d taken hydrocodone, prescribed by my doctor, for a flareup of low back pain. I knew that I’d come up hot if they tested for opiates, so I kept the prescription receipt. A few months later, I received a memorandum that basically said “you tested positive, do you have any evidence of legitimate medical use?” I provided the prescription receipt, and was cleared. That’s the way it’s supposed to work. The Navy screwed this one up royally.
The story sounds strange — I don’t get the three years. This should have been easy to fix or impossible to fix. I can see how a civilian Rx could make it harder but still …
Another off-topic. In 1970 at Fort Devens, while waiting for my school to start, I did typing for the company clerk. My favorite package was these two guys who smoked a joint at night under a big tree out in the middle of a field. They thought that nobody could get close to them without being seen. CID had just been issued some new equipment and that evening they were out behind their building trying out their new Starlight scopes. Their building backed up onto a field with a big tree in the middle. Those guys were gone in a week, General Under Honorable.
I’d be interested to see some more facts in the case. Urine tests typically look for the metabolite of a drug or medication. Some medications/drugs have more than one metabolite making it look like the person ingested two things when it may have just been one substance. I’ve seen that happen a number of times with the opiates. Since two substances were listed, I wouldn’t be surprised if that wasn’t the issue in this case-something like she had a script for something containing codeine (like Tylenol #3) and the geniuses processing her assumed, because she also had morphine in her urine, that she had illegally ingested morphine rather than that just being a metabolite of codeine.
At my last duty station, we had a couple of cases where someone popped for prescription drugs. There was always grumbling by the chain of command, particularly if it was a civilian script, but as long as a legitimate script was produced, the sailor or Marine was always cleared. They got a butt chewing if it was for a medication they were prescribed that they hadn’t told their GMO about (like the guys who decided they were going to enroll in methadone clinics without telling their commands) but there wasn’t much they could do otherwise. Referral to LSSS or whatever legal eagles the base has for a second opinion is pretty common in these types of cases and I’m wondering if she waived her right to a board or they gave her a general to prevent her from being eligible for one.
I administered more piss tests in my career than I care to remember. Sometimes hot tests for prescribed meds slip through the cracks, particularly if it was an off post doc. Never had one that the Soldier and I couldn’t clear in less than an hour. She should have the Commander that processed her for separation and the JAGoff-icer’s heads delivered on a platter.
I am not surprised. My daughter, in the Air Guard, just had her 3rd tetanus shot in the past 9 months. Her first one was from her private doctor, the docs at basic training refused to accept the paperwork and gave her another. They then failed to note it in her record, resulting in the 3rd one yesterday. She now has written proof of her vaccinations with her.
Three Things:
1. They need to make you whole again … Get a lawyer!
2. Get back to the good work for your country.
3. Let lawyer do dirty work for you.
That is all.
Carry on!
One other thing about urinalysis/popping when I was in. I had guys that popped for meth/pot/coke and stand up and swear up and down that they didn’t do it. I used to try to make it a point after they got slammed and processed to find out the truth when they were on the way out of the door. Everyone of them fessed up to doing it.
This is one of those things where yes there is probably more to the story, and that more to the story probably added to her case and made her command look worse. This is far from what typically happens. This may have been a case where someone severely fucked up and nobody wanted to fess up or even knew who did. You know this is the military it works like a well oiled…I’m looking for the right metaphor here…1930s tractor running on two cylinders that grinds occasionally.
@26 It runs like an early 80s robotic factory….years and years of programming and you can’t let anyone near the robots because they are completely un-self aware and crush humans when they move…meaning it works great as long as it’s doing what’s expected. The minute something unexpected occurs all h3ll breaks loose.
These stories and the ongoing VA saga along with the kick in the 4ss over tri-care are probably counter to the whole “Army Strong” campaign…or maybe that campaign means you need to be strong because the military will fuck you when it suits them which appears to be more and more often as of late.
If she had a legal prescription, she should not have been booted out. When the drug test was conducted, she should have been asked are you on any medication and if so is it in the medical record. I even had people bring their prescription bottles in.
In 1945, the US collected enemy intelligence and analyzed it. Now, they collect our pee and analyze it.
At +27 VOValluded to to the major malfuntion . The military does not like to omit their mistakes. F-35 anybody ? Joe