Drug use in the military

Drugs in the Military

The military is a very demanding job. Doing what a soldier does, day in and day out, takes a toll on even the strongest soldier. Many, more so now than ever, have turned to drugs to help ease the high stress they encounter on a day to day basis. Drugs affect the conscious state of the men and women that take them. The problem then lies in the cognitive performance of the soldier. With knowledge of what drugs are in the military, why they use drugs, changes in the way they administer drug testing, the military can begin to see a decrease in the drug activity within the ranks of the military.    

What drugs are in the military?

alcohol

Many turn to alcohol as their drug of choice. “the percentage of active-duty servicemembers who reported binge drinking shot from 35 percent in 1998 to 47 percent in 2008.” states Jennifer Hlad. This is an alarming statistic when compared to the near 1 million enlisted in active duty service in 2008.  With time this problem is growing exponentially. It is only a matter of time before this problem grows out of control.

Anabolic Steroids

These drugs are taken to enhance the performance of the soldier. Injected through a needle into the arm, the drug makes any soldier into a super soldier. this make the drug very appealing.  The soldier often gets these drugs via mail, and little is done about it. If the military is getting a better soldier out of it and the test to detect the drug is very expensive why do anything. This is currently the military’s standpoint on the subject.

Energy Drinks

Caffeine is consumed by most americans, but little does everyone know it is indeed considered a drug. Any caffeine addict can attest that without caffeine a headache is bound to ale.  The most popular way among soldiers of taking this drug is that of 5 hour energy. “sales of the energy shot reached $9.2 million in the military” states New Republic. Those who drink the energy drinks tend to sleep fewer hours at night. this in turn translates into sleeping on the job, which is dangerous when your job can kill you.

Narcotics  Painkillers

In war in often occurs that the soldier gets hurt. It is inevitable. more times than not, the soldier self medicates, and among the drugs that are used these are some of them: Oxycontin, vicodin, and morphine. The soldier is prescribed the drugs to start out by a medic in the military. After that, the drug is a necessity. They do anything possible to get the drugs, and they are now addicted. This then translates into a full blown problem back in the states not only to the soldier but to the family as well.

Sleeping Pills

Drugs like Ambien are used to relax and come down off of a ‘caffeine high’.

"I popped two Ambien. No one was getting any rest without sleeping pills," says Mark Owen. The soldiers are in  high stress environments where a lot is demanded from them, and a lot is expected. It is often hard to sleep once you have been in combat. The problem lies in the deadly consequences held by the drugs. If you take too many of them the drugs can prove to be fatal. Along with this operating machinery while on this drug is ill advised by the manufacturer of the drugs.  

Changes in the Way They Administer Drug Testing    

We need a change in the way we administer the drug testing. furthermore, if coupled with a zero tolerance rule the military should see a dramatic drop in the soldiers that are abusing drugs . As of today we allow a little of each drug in your system. The military uses the DOD Urinalysis screening system to test this. For example, in the screening we currently allow 50 nanograms per milliliter of Marijuana in the soldiers system the first screening. The confirmation level when the military redoes the test must come back with 15 nanograms or less of Marijuana in the system. The military allows a specific amount of nanograms per person this includes drugs like: Marijuana, cocaine, morphine, codeine, heroin, Amphetamines, Methamphetamine, Ecstasy, and Barbiturates. Even if the test comes back with scant traces of drugs there are still drugs in the soldiers system. What we are proposing is a zero tolerance rule. With a zero tolerance rule even if there are trace amounts in the system of the soldier the soldier is subjected to disciplinary action. One of the reasons the military allows a trace amount of drugs to be in the soldiers system is, because the military states, “You won’t get booted out of the military because you walked past someone in the dorm smoking a joint.” The military is not trying to punish a soldier who is around someone smoking a joint by chance. But with the zero tolerance rule you take all the situations out. Now if someone is in the dorm doing any kind of drugs you should not be around them, and the soldier that is doing the drugs will be caught and subjected to disciplinary action. We believe that if you make a zero tolerance rule that the drug usage in the military will decrease rapidly.

Why are they using them?

There are a number of reasons as to why soldiers abuse drugs. Drug use in the military has increased in the past ten years. The reason that drug use has increased, recently, is due to the conditions of the war itself,  in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the reasons that soldiers use drugs in the military is to cope with boredom. The war in Iraq and Afghanistan is not characterized by heavy gunfights, like previous U.S. wars. Soldiers stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan are faced with a lot of down time. In order to cope with boredom and inactivity, many soldiers resort to drugs. We saw in Restrepo that although most outposts in Iraq and Afghanistan do not undergo significant firefight, some do. The soldiers that are faced with heavy firefight are put under a lot of mental stress. A way to deal with the stress induced by combat is through drugs. Some drugs are given to soldiers to keep them alert during night duties. Although some drugs are used to benefit soldiers, even they can still be abused. These drugs are not intended to be abused, but it is obvious that sometimes they are. Not all of the blame should be put on the soldiers themselves though; military doctors willingly prescribe prescription drugs to soldiers. In an interview, (Ret.) Brigadier Gen. Becky stated that “Prescription drugs have become the catchall—‘take this and if it makes you feel better, we’ll increase the dosage’.”  Ease of access also contributes to the increase in drug use in the past 10 years, in the military. This tells us that the military doctors are not afraid to give out these drugs. Also, in the past few years, soldiers have been able to acquire drugs more easily from their family overseas. Stress, boredom, alertness, and ease of access are all contributing factors as to why soldiers use drugs in the military.

    Results of the use

In one example, the use of drugs in the military killed 16 unarmed civilians. Staff Sergeant Robert Bales was under the influence of stanozolol when he slipped out of his outpost in Afghanistan. In just 4 hours Bales killed 16 unarmed civilians while under the influence of stanozolol. Stanozolol is an anabolic steroid whose side effects include: mood swings, aggression, and delusion.  This is an example of how drug use in the military can endanger unarmed civilians. Soldiers under the influence are not only dangerous to civilians though, they are also a danger to their fellow soldiers. If a soldier is impaired because of drug use, it puts the man or woman next to them in peril too. “You have a job and a responsibility, and that includes watching out for your fellow Marines, fellow sailors, and it includes being able to do your job so you don’t put anybody at risk...you can’t afford to have your mind blurred.”, states Malone in an interview with Stars and Stripes.   The military operates in units, if one person is not cohesive with the rest of the unit then they are no longer operating the way they are supposed to. Drugs will not only endanger others but also the individual using the drug. Drugs reduce awareness and slow reaction time, in a combat situation, this could be the difference between life and death.

Conclusion

We felt that this topic needed to be discussed  and change should be addressed.

Soldiers in the military have access to an arsenal of weapons. Accessing these weapons under the influence of these drugs poses a threat not only to themselves but to their family, friends, and fellow soldiers as well. Soldiers also need to be completely coherent and aware of their surroundings while in the military.  With the complete removal of drugs from the military one can begin to see the decrease in careless accidents.

Prisoners of War

       The photo above was taken at the Aomori prison camp near Yokohama, Japan. This is an American Navy-man who was captured by the Japanese during World War II. Soldiers that are captured by enemies and taken hostage are given the title of a “Prisoner of War”, otherwise known as a POW. POWs were captured usually for the purpose of to obtaining information from an enemy soldier. Another reason that soldiers are captured and held as POWs is to be used as a hostage. Hostages can be valuable to the enemy because they can use them as incintives.  To get the information from the soldiers they were physically and mentally tortured. Methods of physical torture include: hanging people by their toes for days on end, hanging people by their tongues and many more painful tortures. The picture above specifically depicts this POW as being severely malnourished. Starvation is a common method of physical torture. According to Sarah Wildman, Jere Dyk set out to Afghanistan as a journalist to observe the going's on in the war in Afghanistan. Shortly after his arrival, Dyk was captured by the Taliban and became a prisoner of war. Dyk claimed that he was fed pretty well but they “barely saw the sky and barely breathed fresh air.”

       Prisoners of war are also tortured mentally. The Taliban's method of torture is usually more mental rather than physical. The Japanese, in WWII, used more physical methods of torture. The Taliban posts videos of their American POWs as an incentive to draw information from the American government. Sargeant Bowe Bergdahl was captured in Aghanistan in 2009. The Taliban released numerous videos of Bergdahl pleading his release. Bergdahl pleades “Release me please, bring me home. I'm begging you” in one video. American government obviously wants to bring home its POWs, but the Taliban do not negotiate easily. A common method of mental torture is threatening loved ones. The captor can implant thoughts into the prisoner's mind, and this method of torture can be just as unbearable as the physical methods.

        This is a picture of John McCain as a POW in recovery. John McCain ejected himeslf out of his plane when it started going down. He landed in a lake and sank to the bottom. McCain said that he pushed his way to the top to get a breath (2 times). All the while, his right leg and both of his arms were broken. After engaging his inflatable life preserver, McCain floated to the top where he was captured by two Vietnamese soldiers. Not only did the Vietnamese induce extreme physical torture on McCain, but they also tortured him mentally to the point of a suicide attempt. After 5 years of intense physical and mental torture, McCain agreed to sign a confession. In order to be released McCain reluctantly wrote "I am a black criminal and I have performed the deeds of an air pirate. I almost died and the Vietnamese people saved my life, thanks to the doctors." McCain also stated that “over there I learned that every man has a breaking point, and I had reached mine”. This 'breaking point' is referring to when he mentally gave up. He had taken enough phyiscal and mental beatings after 5 years, and had reached his breaking point.

        

      Every time a read a story about what a POW experiences I become sympathetic for the soldiers that fight in our military. POW stories really help me appreciate the risk that soldiers put themselves in, everyday, to maintain peace and freedom for America. This topic is so relevant for Veteran's day and is a subject that needs to be addressed when discussing any topic about war. I think this terrible occurrence often gets over looked because we don't hear about a lot of POWs being captured; however, since WWII there have been 73,000 MIA's in the American military. I wanted to include this subject matter in at least one of my blog posts because I have a high amount of respect not only for anyone who serves in the military, but especially for prisoners of war.

Logan Blain

The Hurt Locker in Comparison to Restrepo

        After watching a Hollywood film about war and then seeing one documentary that was completely raw, it made me question what was accurate in the Hollywood film. While watching the documentary film Restrepo I was constantly comparing and contrasting the actuality of Restrepo to The Hurt Locker. One of the first things I noticed was the cohesiveness of the men on post at Restrepo compared to the group of men in The Hurt Locker. In the Restrepo group they always stick together, and there is an overall sense of friendship within the fleet. Another aspect of Restrepo that I saw that was not depicted in The Hurt Locker is the troops' role in negotiating with the locals. Overall, I see The Hurt Locker as more of a Hollywood attraction more than it is an accurate depiction of war in Afghanistan.

       In Restrepo, all of the men are cohesive in that they do not fight, they all get along and they all function well together. In The Hurt Locker James does his own thing and doesn't have any regard for Sanborn and Eldridge. The way that James does everything his own way against orders would be an absurd idea in the context of Restrepo. All of the men follow orders and work together as a team. No one man stands out and tries to be the hero. Richard Allen Smith states that “what is truly disrespectful of service members was the portrayal of the EOD team members as undisciplined, boozing, fighting children with no discipline or respect for their chain of command.” In my previous blog post I addressed the question that is “Is The Hurt Locker a Thriller or a Moralization?”. Richard Allen Smith states that “in fact, most of the scenes-In The Hurt Locker- rely on oddly and unrealistically contrived situations to induce a stressful reaction from the audience." Smith states that “The Hurt Locker exaggerates and creates unrealistic situations to induce a certain emotion from the film.” This is also apparent when you compare it to Restrepo. None of the stressful and emotionally stimulating scenes in Restrepo are due to a heroic act, like James's. The emotionally stimulating parts of Restrepo are real and are in no way exaggerated.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/02/21/magazine/24afghan.12.jpg

        Restrepo, in my opinion, combines many different aspects of war within the film and doesn't limit itself to combat. Although the Korengal Valley is a heavy-combat area, this is not the only thing the movie focuses on. One aspect of the documentary that shocked me was how much the American soldiers negotiated and communicated with the indigenous people. I have never seen this aspect of war depicted in any war movie I have ever seen. It is intriguing how the locals react to the things that the Americans do. When the Americans kill the seriously injured cow the locals want financial compensation for it. Although this roused tension between the Americans and the Afghanistan elders, the Americans showed their respect by attending the traditional shura meetings held by the elders. One of the main purposes for the deployment of troops into the Korengal Valley was to facilitate negotiations with the indigenous people and I really liked seeing this side of war. On the other hand, The Hurt Locker shows no negotiation with the locals. Unless you consider threatening a form of negotiation, then the Americans in this movie do not negotiate with the locals. Other than James interacting with the young boy who sells DVDs, the Americans do not interact or even attempt to negotiate with the locals. The only interaction is in terms of suspicion of IEDs.

http://www.tampabay.com/resources/images/dti/rendered/2010/08/flo_restrepo080810__134273a_8col.jpg

        After watching Restrepo, I quickly realized that the notion of what I thought war was like was far from true. I am glad that Restrepo was filmed and that it is a raw documentary. I believe that all of the public should see this film to correct their twisted notions of what war is like. Hollywood is responsible for the common misconceptions including the idea that war is all about combat, and how the men act and interact with each other. The Hurt Locker is narrow in its focus, it only focuses on the combat aspect of war when Restrepo reveals to us that combat is not the only aspect of war. The Hurt Locker depiected the men's off-time as a time to get wasted and act roudy. Restrepo proves to us that this is not the case at all. In their off time the men bond with each other, play music, dance or play games, all of these very non-violent actions. Restrepo is an imformitive and revealing piece of information that shows us what is true about war. 

Logan Blain

The Hurt Locker: Thriller or Moralization?

The film The Hurt Locker is a movie that focuses on combat in Iraq and more specifically on explosives. Many actual soldiers disagree with this movie and claim that it is not accurate, but this is to be expected from a Hollywood production. To a viewer who has never experienced war first-hand this movie is both thrilling and informative. It is hard to say how accurate the movie is in terms of what it was really like in Iraq because Hollywood has to make the movie interesting to make money, but I believe there are many aspects of the movie that are true in war. This movie is very suspenseful but I would think that it is suspenseful not knowing if the merchant behind the vendor has a detonator or not. There are many times in the movie where you are on the edge of your seat anticipating what’s going to happen next, which is thrilling yet true in the context of the film. Putting yourself in the shoes of the bomb squad, any of the positions from the man in the back watching windows to the diffuser himself are all very important and each hold their own worth.

The Hurt Locker is a thriller due to it’s action-packed plot and suspenseful scenarios, yet I believe it provides more value in the truths that it reveals to us through its depiction of combat in this war. The film puts the viewer into the shoes of an American soldier fighting in Iraq. The movie really emphasizes how the soldiers cannot be too careful. Anything could be an IED therefore, they don’t underestimate anyone. For example, James interacts with a young Iraqi boy he plays soccer with him and buys DVDs from him. At first James sees nothing wrong with him selling DVDs, then he begins to rouse the suspicion that the DVD merchant might be giving away the positions of soldiers. This is a good assumption that James made but turned out the DVDs were not giving away their positions.

Not only does this movie portray what it is like to fight on Iraqi soil, it also explores the mental state of the characters during the war. Referring back to James again, he deals with terrors and anxiety of war through an adrenaline rush. He is the bomb diffuser, he loves the rush that diffusing a bomb gives him. James keeps a part from each rig that he diffuses in a box under his bed. James’s way of coping with death and war is a head-on approach, he does not require the backup of his fellow soldiers rather he wants to do it all himself. When James is off duty he drinks to forget about the terrors that haunt him from the things he encounters in combat. This is a common way that soldiers cope with combat.

Another reason I give this film so much credibility in its sufficiency of depicting combat and a soldier’s struggles is because, even though James is so tough mentally, he too has a breaking point. We see James’s breaking point when he discovers a young boy’s mutilated body which he believes to be the boy that he has been interacting with. Up until this point in the movie James has assessed every bomb situation very calmly without any apparent fears. We now he encounters something that is not a part of his every job (diffusing) he is presented with a different situation. At first, James’s solution is to place charges on the body and blow it up, then he changes his mind and opens up the body, removes the bombs, and carries the body with him. James is mentally stable after diffusing literally hundreds of bombs but this one bomb defines his collapse. I believe this was a good thing to include in James’s character because after all, no one is going to endure war without any long-lasting effects. While The Hurt Locker is a thrilling movie, it holds more truth through it’s portrayal of combat and mental combat of a soldier. The movie covers what it is like on the battlefield all the way to the other end of the spectrum to what it is like after the war is over.

Logan Blain

Why do we go to War?

        War is a part of most every civilization's history. A reason for war in the stone age might have been over something as simple as a rich piece of land. Over time, the reasons for war have become much more complicated. The motives for every war is different but there are some that are very common. Even in the early A.D. Years, people were fighting over land because conquest was a common practice among early civilizations. Already, we can see how the reasons for a war have become slightly more complicated. From the early A.D. Period to post-modern times our reasons for going to war have still evolved and changed although some similarities still exist. Our human nature is hostile and vengeful under the right circumstances; one of the many reasons we go to war is to defend or seek revenge upon another force. Another reason to engage in war is to achieve a specific goal. The reasons that we go to war change between each war but they are all aroused by our natural tendencies to seek revenge on those who do us wrong and to pursue and achieve a goal.

        Not only in war, but in any situation, a human's tendency is to do back to someone what has been done to them. If you get punched by someone (most people) will punch back and this same principle can be applied on a larger scale which deals with whole countries and military forces, when focusing on the initial reasons for the war. There were many factors that played into the American intervention of World War II but the one that pushed Americans over the edge was the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The reason that I am focusing on this aspect of American intervention is because it is the one that applied to the tendency of human nature in which I am discussing. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor the over-all American feeling was anger and in turn they wanted revenge. U.S. Entered the war on December 7, 1941 which was the same day as the bombing. The Japanese destroyed a piece of America's own and they were angry and wanted revenge, although this is not the only reason the U.S. entered the war, it was the spark that ignited the flame. It is an elementary concept but holds true in many instances concerning war. War essentially has the same plot as middle school fight: someone has hostile feelings towards another for any number of reasons, the hostile individual takes action and attacks the victim, the victim usually retaliates, thus starting a war. When Pearl Harbor was bombed and America wanted revenge on the Japanese, so they entered the war.

        Another reason that a country might enter or initiate a war would be to achieve a specific goal, these goals could include political, economic, or humanitarian characteristics. In the case of the Vietnam war America was trying to achieve the political goal of preventing the spread of communism. America believed that by helping South Vietnam fight North Vietnam they would prevent or limit the spread of communism throughout the world. So here we see that America is trying to achieve containment of communism and this is the primary reason for the U.S.'s intervention in Vietnam. In Black Hawk Down American's intervened in Somalia for humanitarian purposes. They were trying to help relieve the famine. Another example of the motive of achieving a goal is the Revolutionary war. The Revolutionary war was a Revolution against Britain, who at the time controlled America. The English parliament, which ruled America, taxed the colonists, which made them angry towards Britain. The American colonists got tired of being ruled by a foreign king and wanted independence and the result was a rebellion. After the war was won by the Americans, on July 4^th, 1776 a Declaration of Independence is written and the United States is born. 

        After looking chronologically at the motives for engaging in war, it is obvious how they have gotten more complex over time, yet the motive itself is nothing foreign to us as individuals. If human nature was different in that we weren't so quick, it brings about the question of how would war be different if we more passive in terms of war. In the example of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, it shows just how quick humans are, that is we wasted no time in joining a war to get revenge on the Japanese who attacked us. If our genetic m
ake-up had us as more passive beings, would we have as many wars? Would the world be more peaceful? Our non-passive tendencies also give us the characteristic that we create goals that we seek to achieve. In many of our U.S. Wars, the primary motive for entering is to obtain something set by the specific circumstance. Overall, fighting is part of a human's natural behavior.

How does war effect a soldier's life?

Logan Blain

How does war effect a soldier's life?

       War effects a soldier's life in many different ways, some are more obvious than others. Of these ways 

that a soldier is effected I will be exploring in depth a select few of them. Probably the first thing that comes to mind when you think about how war effects a soldier is something along the lines of PTSD. Although 

PTSD greatly effects soldiers, there are many more outcomes of war that people tend to over-look. When a soldier leaves for war, not only does he struggle with leaving his home but his family deals with this issue too. Probably the most obvious effect on a soldier among all is the physical impairments that result from combat. These negative effects caused by war are relational, mental, and physical struggles.

       In an article by Smithsonian.com (http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/laos.html?c=y&story=fullstory), the author describes several different aspects of a young man named Michael Masterson's life in Vietnam. One of the topics emphasized in the article is not only how Masterson himself was effected by the war, but his family too. Michael Masterson's plane crashed into a mountain side on October 13, 1968. A nearby plane circled the crash site for hours looking for signs of Masterson but recovered nothing. Masterson was labeled as MIA. Michael Masterson had a wife and two daughters. I believe the author used Masterson as his main character in this story because he was effected directly by the war but the war also effected his family too. Masterson's family clung to the hope that Michael was still alive, they received engraved bracelets with his name and a label of “MIA” . Masterson's wife, Fran, recalled that the last time she talked to her husband, ironically, he claimed that he dreaded night missions over Laos. Fran Masterson says that she replayed the tape of his last phone call for years after his death but eventually put it away. She never remarried. This aspect of the story shows how war doesn't only affect the soldier but also his loved ones.

        The next burden that a soldier carries after a war is the mental torture that he/she undergoes. This aspect will come from my own account with a family member of mine who served in Vietnam. My Uncle served in combative Vietnam, when he returned home loud noises that resembled gunfire or bombs frightened him. Since my Uncle experienced first-hand combat, fireworks on holidays made him involuntarily recall upon war memories and he could not bear the sound. Something as simple as fireworks can trigger a memory in the brain that becomes so vivid that he almost felt as if he was experiencing it again, which put him in a state of panic and terror. This example is PTSD in essence and is the most common way that a soldier is effected mentally by a war.

        The most obvious way that a soldier is negatively altered by war is through physical change. According to Vietnam War Statistics (http://www.mrfa.org/vnstats.htm ) there was nearly a total of 60,000 deaths, 60,000 MIA's, and 75,000 physically disabled. This statistic proves that the Vietnam war, along with many other wars, had a huge physical impact on soldiers' lives who served. Being physically disabled is most commonly in the form amputations, from my personal experiences I have encountered numerous Veterans who are amputees. When a soldier is physically disabled the result is not only a physical struggle but it's a family struggle too. A physically disabled soldier effects the family because in many cases the family has to take care of the soldier and the soldier now has a dependency on family and friends.

All of the ways that soldiers are effe
cted, whether it be directly or indirectly, are a burden to the soldier and in many cases their loved ones too. In most situations, family is almost always effected whether it be through mental or physical means. Most of the time soldiers are effected mentally in some way or another, PTSD being the worst scenario but there are milder forms of it that many soldiers will experience due to the terrors of war. And finally, a large portion of troops that served in Vietnam ended up physically disabled. Despite their differences, all forms of terrors that a soldier endures as an outcome of war are a burden and take part in all soldiers' lives.

Pictures From...

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2007/05/wounded_soldier_healing_warrio.php

http://www.bashfullydesigned.com/2010/06/30/writing-a-letter-is-beautiful-too/

http://omgtoptens.com/misc/weapons/top-10-most-deadliest-weapons-in-the-world/