AHS Views

I can’t help feeling angry when our troops – the guys and girls who are willing to give their lives for our country’s ideals – are treated with the worst kind of medicine there is: throwing dangerous prescription drugs at them to control their symptoms instead of finding real solutions to their problems. About 1/3 of the suicides by the troops in 2009 involved medication, and an additional 100 deaths involved prescription drugs. Also, more than 1/3 of our troops are on at least one prescription drug, and many are suffering from drug addiction. Not only are they not getting the best medical treatment available, they’re not even getting addiction help.

What kind of shoddy treatment is that?

“I’m not a doctor, said General Peter W. Chiarelli, vice chief of staff of the Army, who has led efforts on suicide prevention, “but there is something inside that tells me the fewer of these things we prescribe, the better off we’ll be.’’

A New York Times investigation into the 100 drug-related deaths other than the suicides found the following:

“All the men had been deployed multiple times and eventually received diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder. All had five or more medications in their systems when they died, including opiate painkillers and mood-altering psychiatric drugs, but not alcohol. All had switched drugs repeatedly, hoping for better results that never arrived. All died in their sleep.”

These are guys who lived through the war, only to get killed by neglect – there’s really no other words for limiting someone’s treatment options to drugs. Dangerous drugs.

When is the military going to wise-up? If they’re not going to give them the medical help they really need, the very least they could do it get these guys into a good drug rehab program.

Really, it’s shameful. What parent is going to want their kids to go to war, to defend the country and our ideals, when they know that if they manage to come home alive, their lives are still likely to be ruined?