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The Other Drug War, or "Meanwhile, Over There"

chicago dyke's picture
Submitted by chicago dyke on Tue, 09/02/2008 - 10:28pm
Departments: 
Department of Stop it! You're killing me!
Thread: 
Iraq Clusterfuck
Tags: 
hypocrisy
Iraq
drugs
addiction
international drug cartel

I'm just all about linking and not saying anything tonight. Still...Your Prozac Army:

One in six American soldiers in Afghanistan and one in eight in Iraq are taking daily doses of prescription antidepressants, sleeping pills or painkillers to help them cope with the stresses of combat, according to figures contained in a US Army mental health advisory team report seen by The Herald.

The findings mean that at least 20,000 troops are on medication such as Prozac or diamorphine while serving in the front line or on equally dangerous convoy escort or driving duties in conflicts where insurgents regularly target the supply chain.

While the vast majority would have been barred automatically from combat roles in earlier wars on medical and safety grounds, the pressure to provide up to 200,000 soldiers at any given time for the two major deployments has led to a relaxation of the rules.

Keep reading, it gets "better."

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Damon's picture
Submitted by Damon on

I think these drugs are being over-prescribed, quite frankly. And, I'll leave it at that.

Submitted by hipparchia on

among 'civilian contractors' [haven't i read that we have approximately as many civilians over there as we do military personnel?]

then again, 1 in 4 or 5 of us ordinary americans is crazy to start with....

of course, if we move the war to afghanistan, they can take advantage of all those lovely opium poppies, and we poor beleaguered taxpayers could stop footing the bills for all that prozac entirely. /sarcasm

trishb's picture
Submitted by trishb on

I've never been in the armed services, but a healthy daily dose of ADs is the only thing that keeps me alive. I'll look for the link, but IIRC the ratio for us "standard" folks on various psych meds is about 20%.

Personally, it would be more worrisome to me that people who need meds aren't taking them or aren't asking for or given them for whatever reasons.

cenobite's picture
Submitted by cenobite on

'diamorphine' is diacetylmorphine, you may know it as 'heroin.'

Submitted by jawbone on

"what does it matter" or "what, me worry?" approach to things, especially those affecting other people. Depending on what the military wants from its soldiers, that may be just what they want. Run over that car? Eh, what does it matter. Etc. Note: This is pure conjecture on my part--I have no idea how it feels to be the person with the "what does it matter" affect.

I was introduced to the Joe Haldeman scifi novels by some commenter somewhere (here?), and, in Forever War, was struck the use of pills to jack up aggression to get soldiers to kill anything that moved--which left some of the soldiers psychologically unable to function afterwards. This must have been prior to the deveoplment of "brain wipes." Anyway, this reminded me of the book.

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