KADENA AIR BASE, Okinawa — An airman who tripped out on hallucinogenic drugs bought from a research Web site in Canada was sentenced Tuesday to 90 days confinement and a reduction in rank to E-1.
Airman 1st Class Jarad Lundfelt pleaded guilty at Tuesday’s special court-martial to possessing and using four kinds of chemicals — known officially as phenethylamines and tryptamines but often referred to as “designer” or “research” drugs — from August to October 2005.
The synthetic chemicals produce a powerful hallucinogenic effect similar to that of LSD but are not listed under the Uniform Code of Military Justice’s Article 112A, which deals with controlled substances. Lundfelt was charged under Article 134 for committing acts that were “prejudicial to good order and discipline and brought discredit to the armed forces.”
Calling Lundfelt deceptive, prosecutor Capt. Anthony Archibeque said the airman thought he had found a loophole that would allow him to get high legally.
“He thought he had beat the system,” Archibeque told Judge Lt. Col. Eric Dillow during the sentencing phase, asking that Lundfelt be given a bad-conduct discharge.
Archibeque told the judge this wasn’t a case of experimentation or a young airman getting pressured but rather an informed and recurring choice to get high.
In his sworn statement, Lundfelt said he and Airman 1st Class Jesse E. Miller first bought the drugs in Tokyo and then off a Web site that carries the warning: “Our products are to be used for research or educational purposes only. They are not sold for human consumption.”
Lundfelt said Miller, who was sentenced to six months confinement and a bad-conduct discharge for his role, ordered the drugs and arranged for them to be shipped to an off-base address. The two mixed the powder with lemonade and got high at Miller’s on-base home and at the Sunabe Sea Wall.
Lundfelt said the drugs often affected him for about 12 hours, making him see bright lights, altering the sound around him and giving him a feeling of euphoria.
During the court-martial, he said taking the drugs was wrong and had the potential to “bring the unit down.”
“A civilian was around (when he was high) and it would cause shame on the military if a civilian saw me in that state, using these drugs,” he told the judge.
Lundfelt, sitting hunched over in an ill-fitting dress uniform, displayed little visible emotion as he told the judge what he’d done. The airman did sound emotional when asking the judge to let him finish the rest of his enlistment, which is up in 2007.
“I joined the Air Force to get ahead in life,” he said, adding he came from a small town with little opportunity. “I love the Air Force.”
Dillow sentenced him to 10 months’ confinement but a pre-trial agreement allowed for just 90 days.
