Military experts are blaming rampant prescription Drug Addiction and abuse on the toll taken by the wars fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. These wars have required troops to serve multiple combat deployments since 2003. Other facts to consider are powerful pain relieving prescription drugs, along with anti-psychotics and mood stabilizers are being prescribed at a staggering pace. This along suicide rates increasing.
"We are aware that more prescription drugs are being used today for pain management and behavioral health issues," Brig. Gen. Colleen McGuire, director of the Army Suicide Prevention Task Force, said Wednesday. "These areas of substance abuse along with increased use of Alcohol concern us."
The survey showed that prescription pain relievers were the most abused drug in the military; these drugs were abused illicitly at a rate triple that of marijuana or amphetamines, the next most widely abused drugs and cause of drug addiction.
Prescription drug abuse is "an issue for American society as well, and we're looking at it from every possible angle," McGuire said.Prescription drug addiction, particularly pain relievers, among troops has soared since 2005, showing a 500 % increase in just three short years, the last time a similar study was conducted.
According to the article, the authors of the report released Wednesday said different questions were used in 2008 compared with previous years. That makes an exact comparison with drug addiction rates then and addiction rates now.
The study should compare the drug addiction rate with number of prescriptions written and for what the prescription was written. The rate of soldiers requiring pain relieving prescription drugs from being injured or wounded rose 66%.It would not be surprising to find subsequent prescriptions being written for depression, anxiety and PTSD as those soldiers with suicidal thoughts doubled in the last three years.
These studies are performed as a means to find solutions to the problem of drug addiction, however, they seem to become complex on purpose. It’s a known fact drugs, regardless of origin, illegal or prescribed, are toxic and along with addiction, cause other mental maladies such as depression and anxiety. With that in mind it would make sense these maladies or “disorders” would increase upon a rising demand for drugs, i.e. pain or stress relievers. Researchers would then discover subsequent prescriptions being written for depression, anxiety and PTSD, and the suicides and addiction rates going up, another well known side affect and fact of antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs of those drugs.
Those that profit from the lies and deceptions borne out of the circumstances that cause addiction and the aftermath of prescription drug addiction should be held accountable. The responsibility of the drug addiction problem lies on both sides of the fence. Some soldiers unfortunately take advantage of the situation by fabricating or embellishing problems that leads to a prescription being written. On the other side of the coin, vultures who profit from the lies and deception and create addiction, are handing out the drugs with wild abandon. This makes the soldiers that need help harder to distinguish and create more casualties of war.
