Tags for This Article:

California (1328)  Veterans (637)  Veterans Iraq (271)  Drugs (232)  Veterans (229)  Veterans Admin VA (224)  Veterans Post Tramatic Stress (156)  Veterans Benefits (140)  Veterans Mental Health (139)  Veterans Vietnam (122)  Veterans Handicapped (102)  Addictions (63)  Veterans For Peace (52)  Vetoes (52)  Drug Abuse-Use (30)  Drug Abuse Alcohol (23)  Drug Abuse Alcohol (21)  Colorado (20) 

Populum Tag Cloud
       Control Panel
Fine tune your search to access content
Articles
Diaries Products
Events All
All time
Last 6 mos
Last month
Last week
Last 24 hrs
From:
Month  Day   Year

To:
Month  Day   Year
Alphabet
Popularity
Count ON
Count OFF
This Level
Sub-levels

 

 

 

Tag(s): ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; (more...) ; ; ; ; ; ; ;  (less...)
Add to My Group
November 26, 2007 at 15:54:41

War Vets Fighting Drug Addiction

by Aaron Glantz     Page 1 of 1 page(s)

www.opednews.com

 

Tell A Friend

View Ratings | Rate It  

ABC News is out with a very important investigation into alcohol and drug abuse among soldiers who've served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The ABC investigation is centered on Fort Carson, a massive Army base in Colorado Springs, which is home to 17,500 active duty personell.

Among the soldiers who spoke to ABC News was William Swenson, who was injured in his final mission in Iraq. Prescription drugs provided little relief from physical and emotional pain, Swenson said, so he turned to marijuana and tried cocaine. The Army responded by court-martialling him and throwing him in jail for 20 days.

If the Pentagon was really interested in helping people who've served overseas, they'd give them adequate treatment for their physical and emotional pain instead of throwing them in prison. It's acommon occurrence that I've covered numerous times.

You can check out my story about Private Cody Miranda here. He returned from a tour in Iraq and divorced his wife and pulled away from his son. He started drinking too much and was found in possession of cocaine.

"He never received any of the post-deployment questionnaires that now are mandatory for all troops," said Amanda Newman, a licensed family therapist who's been seeing Miranda on a pro-bono basis for the past few weeks. "He couldn't understand why all of a sudden his life was falling apart."

In 2005, Miranda went absent without leave from Camp Pendleton in California for nearly a year and lived homeless on the street. When he returned, Camp Pendleton. officials threw him in prison and only released him after his story was exposed by the media.

You can also check out the story of Staff Sgt. Michael Hall here. He returned from a tour in Iraq and started using meth to dull the pain. Soon after he was living homeless on the street.

Did you know?

A team of researchers from Walter Reed Army Medical Center found 95% of soldiers deployed to Iraq reported seeing dead bodies and remains, 95% had been shot at, and 89% had been ambushed or attacked. 69% had seen an injured woman or child and felt they could not provide assistance.

How well do you know your facts about U.S. veterans returning from Iraq or Afghanistan? Take the War Comes Home "Did You Know?" Quizand find out!

 

warcomeshome.org

Pacifica radio network reporter Aaron Glantz is author of the new book "How America Lost Iraq" (Tarcher/Penguin). More information at www.warcomeshome.org

 

Bookmark this page: (what's this?)

NETSCAPE      DIGG THIS      Add This Page to Mr Wong!           NEWSVINE      DEl.ICIO.US      Looksmart Furl      My Web      Tag!RawSugar      Blink List     (More...)
Comments: Expand   Shrink   Hide  
1 comments

 

1 comments

 

Tell A Friend

 


Copyright © OpEdNews, 2002-2008

Blog Ads

 

 

 

 

Most Popular Articles
in the Last 2 Days
(by Recommend Emails)

Obama Must Appoint a Consumer Protectionist as FDA Commissioner by Stephen Fox

Naomi Wolf Must Watch Video: A Coup Took Place on October 1, 2008 by youtube

CBS's Spoiled Poodle Dean Reynolds Bites Obama-- Reports his Plane Smells by Rob Kall

What I Learned At The Sarah Palin Rally Before They Threw Me Out! by Linda Milazzo

Return of the Jedi by Ferdinand

How low can Palin go? by Deb Della Piana

Onward, Christian Soldiers (Redux) by Shirley Bianchi

This is Your Nation on White Privilege Posted by Siv O'Neall

The dangerous McCain/Palin character assassination of Obama by Sherman Yellen

A Solution? by Paul Craig Roberts

Go To Top 50 Most Popular