For several months the attorney general had been approached on a regular basis by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff with a concern that he considered to be a dangerous national security threat to the nation. The secretaries of each of the armed forces had on several occasions reported to him that the increased availability of illegal drugs, the increased use of the drugs by a growing number of the military population and the effect on the readiness of their forces was a dangerous situation and could have an undesirable effect if there was a need to undertake a dangerous mission to protect the country or its assets in other countries around the world.