Troops reportedly popping more painkillers

[underpants]

Source: USA Today

WASHINGTON — Narcotic pain-relief prescriptions for injured U.S. troops have jumped from 30,000 a month to 50,000 since the Iraq war began, raising concerns about the drugs' potential abuse and addiction, says a leading Army pain expert.

The sharp rise in outpatient prescriptions paid for by the government suggests doctors rely too heavily on narcotics, says Army Col. Chester "Trip" Buckenmaier III, of Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

By 2005, two years into the war, narcotic painkillers were the most abused drug in the military, according to a survey that year of 16,146 servicemembers.

The Army and Marine Corps are testing new dispenser machines. Located in a barracks, the automated pillboxes emit drugs as needed and help track consumption, says Army Col. Ike Harper, pharmacy consultant to the surgeon general.

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2008-10-20-paindrugs_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

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MORE: Prescription drug abuse hits Mo. Army unit hard
http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2008-10-20-pain-drug-inside_N.htm

Roughly a third of the soldiers in the 509th Engineer Company at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri were also abusing prescription narcotics, court records say. Like Thompson and his buddy, Spc. Jason Pellet, many suffered orthopedic injuries from training and war, and their drug source was the Army pharmacy.

[machI]

1. If ya got 'em, smoke 'em.

[Roland99]

2. Saw a chart on the news yesterday re: pharmaceuticals and recessions.

Drug sales always kept going up.

[Uben]

3. Pain-killers

I probably have over a hundred hydrocodone tabs in some form or another, all left over from my broken leg three yrs ago and my wife's surgeries and reconstructions from breast cancer, and a knee injury she suffered. Neither of us like the pain meds because of the constipation they give us. If it were up to me, they would be discarded, but the wife keeps everything, forever!

Maybe I should call Rush. I hear he is paying premium price!

[Historic NY]

4. Damn I flushed mine.

[Uben]

6. Now you've done it!

Limpcyst will be at your local sewage farm wading around trying to find them! You really should not have made that disclosure!

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. the new economy..

just saying.

[Bigmack]

10. Take pills, get high, eat prunes!... nt

[zelta gaisma]

5. pain...

I'd say these soldiers have legitimate reason so be on pain pills. Even if they don't have a scratch on them. As i understand it , in the military if you ask for / take any antidepressant or other similar medications . Things can go from bad to worse for you. So is this a way of dealing with more than one kind of pain?

[ensho]

7. they came back from Nam hooked on jones

nt

[raysr]

8. When I was in the Army

everytime I went on sickcall I got a bottle Darvon. They handed that crap out like aspirin.