Monster Drug Pushers: The Army and the VA System

Even though marijuana/cannabis is still illegal in many states, Veterans and non-Veterans are willing to take the chance and use it for PTSD...

(PORTLAND, OR) - The Army and I presume the Marine Corps, trains its own addicts. If you don't believe me, pay attention. I can't remember much about basic training, they kept us on the run from about five in the morning until some time after supper. I can't remember going to a PX or a beer hall, probably not the latter. If they let us, the young 18-year old recruits would have drunk as much as they could hold or pass out and be worthless the next day. That couldn't happen!

When I/we got to advanced Infantry training, camp beer joints were available. The Army "trained" us to always expect the unexpected. The pattern was to announce weekend passes or the like and cancel them an hour or five minutes before giving us passes. What happened? About 85% of the troops went to the beer hall and got smashed. This went on through advanced training and by that time, the Army had thousands of now or soon to be alcoholics. Besides that, they smoked cigarettes like crazy and most of the troops ended up as alcoholics and nicotine freaks. Both caused early deaths at an alarming rate.

Pace forward sixty years or so. In Vietnam, the beer and cig's were available but so was marijuana and opium. Both were good for "battle terrors", the real name for the insulting "battle fatigue" or "shell shock". Thousands of the combat infantry discovered marijuana as better than any kind of prescription medications they were given for battle terrors and its sequel, PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). Opium would give them an additional boost of relief.

When the 'Nam survivors came home, many brought their new found medicine with them and they were astonished that it was taken away when they landed at home. This is where things went really screwy ---- call it reefer madness!

The Army medics in Vietnam tried every conceivable type of prescription meds on the soldiers and Marines. Their complaint was that the drugs caused zombification like a form of alcoholic drunkenness, not so good for a combat mission. Our boys stuck with marijuana and to a lesser extent, opium.

When the boys came home and went to the VA to get something for night terrors from PTSD, they were given every mish mash of drugs, but ended up with the narcotic painkillers Oxycodone, hydrocodone, methadone and morphine, which will guarantee sleep and relieve insomnia and nightmares of PTSD.

It appears that the VA doctors started out slowly, ignoring the fact that these narcotics were extremely addictive and thus, ended up with hundreds of thousands of drug addicts, concentrated on both coasts because that is where the most population and Veterans are. It does appear that there are thousands of Veteran drug addicts in every state.

A study by the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) and ABC News found and reported that the number of prescriptions for the four drugs listed above, reaches astronomic levels in the past five years. For hydrocodone, it is a 578% increase. For methadone it is a 281% gain, for morphine, 240% and for oxycodone, it is 65%. OxyContin should be in there someplace, as it is the most powerful, most addicting and most lethal.

This doesn't even include heroin, which many Veterans finally get to. It is the most potent of all.

In the states where marijuana/cannabis is legal, many Veterans switched to that. It is almost as good as even the strongest narcotic and has only a slight danger of addiction and almost no hazard of causing death.

In New Mexico, a legal medical marijuana state, 50% of the cardholders are Veteran/pain victims. Thousands of Veterans are moving there.

Even though marijuana/cannabis is still illegal in many states, Veterans and non-Veterans are willing to take the chance and use marijuana/cannabis for PTSD and the other problems from their military service.

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