PN,
as the Adj of a well-known Salopian helicopter base, I was asked to witness a P&SS drugs-search of an off-base flat, normally occupied by an RAF Chef (remember them?). It was one of the more unpleasant tasks that I have ever been involved in. The place was a tip, and they went through everything to find evidence of drug-taking. All correspondence was read (days before the internet), they emptied his bins, sorted through his rank laundry (put me off eating in the Mess for a while), checked his bedding, porn stash, the works. Although it was professionally conducted, it made me feel pretty sick. Although drugs were not found, 'paraphernalia' was, as well as evidence of other criminal activity and there were also concerns about some of the (very) young women he was, ahem, entertaining. IIRC he was admin discharged from the Service.
Clearly, there is no comparison with the Sqn Ldr cited in the OP, but I do wonder what happened to the chef (it was over 20 years ago). I recall the P&SS people of the time commenting that the CVIPOL wouldn't have bothered searching a property for marijuana, and even then, possession of a spliff would result in little more than a caution (as would probably have been the situation if this Sqn Ldr had been a civilian). Yet in the Services we are bound by higher standards of ethics and behaviour (quite rightly, too) but the effect of compromising these higher standards can cast a shadow of the rest of one's life, long after leaving the Services, which I think is a tad unfair.
