Rising use of opioid painkillers and efforts to curb them may lead soldiers, vets to

[Pete]

Rising use of opioid painkillers and efforts to curb them may lead soldiers, vets to heroin

http://www.fayobserver.com/military/...2affc85e2.html

"Twenty-four year-old Aaron Nowiski died alone, on his bed next to two bags of heroin.

The Army veteran, who served two tours in Iraq, had secretly been using the powerfully addictive drug, even fooling his family into the understanding that he had quit, before it claimed his life in 2011....."

The first part of this story follows the typical line but then they start talking about numbers...

"...Those statistics show that in 2001, the VA prescribed the opioid painkiller hydrocodone to 1,130 patients. By 2012, those prescriptions had soared to 47,586 patients, a 4,100 percent increase in 11 years.

Prescriptions for painkillers also had increased for active-duty soldiers at Fort Bragg.

In 2012, more than 18,000 soldiers - about a third of the installation's active-duty population - received a total of 46,870 opiate painkiller prescriptions through Womack...."

Problem or not???

[Joker]

Yes.

See article about LTG Fridovich.

[Sohei]

After dealing with the aftermath of heroin issues for way longer than I wanted to...it's certainly a problem.

Heroin makes the strongest of strong into a servant of the addiction. It's making a strong re-emergence in the streets and is certainly available for those needing it.

Yes...it's a problem and I will hate to see it begin affecting our veterans.

[PRB]

Scary crap.
Especially if you get an easy script and you 'like' it.
Anyone that's ever been hit by a morphine surette (sp) understands the complexity of the issue.
Some of that shit is other worldly.

[PRB]

Originally Posted by Brush Okie

I am sure it is a problem.

Addiction is genetic ie you have the gene or you don't. So now we have these kids getting hit and needing pain meds that have that gene. Now they are an addict. Worse yet, many of them have chronic pain and truly need the pain meds but due to their genes they can not just take what they need many times. So how do you treat an addict with legit need for narcotics.

This is not new. The aftermath of the civil war was opium and morphine addiction from a lot of wounded soldiers.


Here is the thing where I don't get. There is a big leap from pain meds and narcs to heroin in my mind. That is the part I have reservations about ie the vets blaming heroin addiction on the military service. I have dealt with addicts both street drugs and prescription pain killers type for years in the medical field and corrections. I think a number of vets will just become addicts no matter what. A percent of vets wind up in jail for sex crimes as well but that is not the military that did that to them it is just something they do. Any number of a large group will turn out to be dirt bags.

I agree on the Heroin angle...it is the 'legal' addictions I think are the issue. The prescribed pain meds are addicting as hell for some.
Some Doc's go overboard with that avenue.

[Sohei]

One of the biggest issues is the huge growth in pain clinics. They are being infiltrated by those that have dubious practices and are handing out prescriptions for money rather than pain relief.

[Remington Raidr]

the real horror here is someone who is in real physical pain, I mean can't sleep kind of pain, and in our war to save abusers from themselves we deny pain meds to those that need it. If John Doe wants to swallow the blue pill for whatever reason, in the end no one can really prevent it. I am more concerned with those that are really suffering REAL pain and are underprescribed because we are convinced a cookie-cutter response to a problem is a solution.

[Eagle5US]

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