THE Government is not doing enough to address a "basket of factors" causing increasing numbers of British soldiers to turn to drugs, a Kent MP and ex-serviceman has said.

A report by the Royal United Services Institute found The Army is dismissing the equivalent of a battalion - around 600 soldiers - every year for taking drugs like cocaine, heroin and cannabis.

The Ministry of Defence played down the findings, saying drug abuse by military personnel was still below the average for civilians, but Faversham and Mid Kent MP Hugh Robertson accused the department of "complacency" and said steps needed to be taken to help soldiers get through the pressures of conflict.

"There is no doubt that the Government has not properly considered the impact of certain factors on soldiers’ health," he said.

"In the 10 full years I was in service, I don’t think there were more than 10 incidents of dismissal for drugs. Now we are seeing around 600 soldiers a year being dismissed."

Mr Robertson, 45, served with The Army for 10 years in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and saw active service in Northern Ireland, the Gulf War, and was commander of the British detachment in Sarajevo before retiring as a Major in 1995.

He said that while better drug detection within battalions today was probably uncovering more cases than before, the easy availability of soft drugs combined with the mental and physical pressures soldiers experience doing back to back operations in active war zones with little time off in between was making drugs more appealing.

He said: "The system [of care] that is in place now was drawn up when the fighting was much less intense.

"Soldiers come home from conflict, the intensity of which we probably haven’t seen since the Second World War, with a big build up of wages and they head straight back home without any sort 'cool down' for a few months before they are sent back again.

"It’s like playing a high intensity sport - you don’t just stop, you have to cool down afterwards. There must be more drugs education for our soldiers before they go home."

He added: "This is an Army-wide issue, as relevant to our own Kent regiments as it is to those across the UK."

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said drug misuse is significantly less prevalent amongst service personnel than in corresponding civilian demographic groups.

He added: "Drug misuse is incompatible with service life and is not tolerated."