http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/143867/why_are_we_locking_up_traumatized_veterans_for_their_addictions_instead_of_offering_them_treatment/?page=entireUntreated combat-related mental health injuries are predictive of substance abuse, and untreated substance abuse is predictive of encounters with the criminal justice system. And the door predictably revolves.
Tarantino wants it made very clear that, for many soldiers, the vicious cycle begins while they are still under military jurisdiction. “It was really alarming how many combat soldiers were given prescription drugs with little or no supervision,” he reported. “To be really blunt, I know crack dealers who are more discriminating with issuing drugs than some of the clinics that I saw in Iraq.”
Many of those drugs have serious known side effects, including suicide. And many of them, drugs to help soldiers sleep and drugs to help them stay awake, are seriously addictive.
“The ease of obtaining prescription drugs in the combat zone,” Tarantino explains, “is not mirrored back in garrison. When soldiers come home, their reliance on those same drugs can create severe problems.”
This report highlights the gross injustice of holding soldiers and veterans entirely responsible for drug reliance that is facilitated, if not encouraged, when it serves military purposes. That injustice is aggravated when it is used as an excuse to kick soldiers out of the military thereby denying them benefits. It is further aggravated when treatment is withheld, both for their injuries and for their addictions, and aggravated further still when it is punished with incarceration.
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