Some Guard veterans have speculated that Bush may have been dodging random drug tests, which were instituted in some military units as early as 1971.Random drug tests on National Guard units didn't start until the mid 1980's. And they were random, unannounced.
The only time my urine was "tested" was my physical in the late 1980's, and since I had just had major surgery, and had received narcotic pain medications, they decided to omit it.
Scheduled drug testing is ridiculous: You just stay clean for awhile, take a herb to block the THC part of the test, or borrow someone else's urine.
However, pilots do take drug testing. However, Bush's "drug" was alcohol, which clears in 24 hours--which is why alcohol is forbidden up to 24 hours prior to testing.
Drug tests for meth and cocaine were NOT common in the 1970's, and indeed, Amphetemines were not considered "drugs" until truckers wrecked too many trucks from taking Amphetamines to stay awake, again in the early 1970's. So which "drug test" was Bush supposed to have missed?
All of what you mentioned about drug testing is true, but that's not my point. My point is that the reporter slipped in an inference that Bush was a drug user and therefore avoided his Class II Flight Physical to hide drug use. There's absolutely no evidence of that. It's just more Bush trashing. There's numerous reasons why he failed to keep his Flight Physical current, not the least of which is not being in a position or provided the option to be placed in a duty status in order to report for the physical exam. This is a fairly common occurence with Reserve Component aviators, especially if they are in between unit assignments and/or in the Individual Ready Reserve. This happened to me on two seperate occasions for the very reasons mentioned.