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I parsed the implications of the original statement as one of deployed troops picking up the habit rather than increasing the home front supply. Do you happen t
by cushychicken 11y ago
I parsed the implications of the original statement as one of deployed troops picking up the habit rather than increasing the home front supply. Do you happen to have any stats about heroin abuse among Afghan vets?
- PhasmaFelis 11y agoI was reading it as claiming that the government that took power after the Taliban was "defeated" was ineffective at policing opium production. A glance at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_production_in_Afghanistan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_production_in_Afghanista... seems to support the idea that production increased substantially after the official Taliban government was removed.
- yrLS1 11y agoThe only thing I could really find is here: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/military/story/2012-04-21/afghanistan-soldier-drug-use/54450906/1 http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/military/story/2012-04-2... Long story short, the Army investigated 56 soldiers in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2011 for using / dealing. As for the bigger question, the military really is a subset of society. Veterans end up using the same things the rest of society does to escape their problems. Combine that with relatively easy access to pain meds and you get the same sad story we're dealing with everywhere else. Here's more info on that angle: https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/06/30/us-half-million-drug-dependent-veterans https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/06/30/us-half-million-drug-dep...