New York City in the early 1920s a number of drug addicts many of whom were World War I veterans supported themselves by collecting scrap metal from industrial dumps, so earning the label `junkies'.
They were prepared for war. They were prepared to die for their country. But soldiers back from the war in Iraq say they weren't prepared to fight a different battle, addiction to illegal drugs. A ''20/20'' investigation reveals that many of this country's bravest men and women who volunteered to defend America in a time of war have come home wounded, physically and mentally, and are turning to illicit drugs as they adjust to normal life.
It just had to happen it occurs in all wars. So call this another of the sad costs and consequences of the war in Iraq. They can't blame this on us but I'm sure they will try. A couple of weeks ago a conservative colleague of mine who is quite intelligent with the exception of his political views sent me an e-mail article where some Neo-Con hack blamed the Vietnam War protest movement , Hollywood Liberals , Pot smoking Hippies, and left leaning Democrats for all of our nations drug problems. What really pissed me off in particularly was this article blamed the Left for the so called 1980's "epidemic" regarding African Americans use of crack cocaine which in reality was a propaganda campaign used by the Reagan Administration to produce mass hysteria for domestic political gain.
I sent him an email pointing out that nations drug problem started during the Civil War a 100 years before the turbulent era of the 1960's furthermore it's been an non stop continuous drug problem from that time in the 1860's until today. Injured Union soldiers having been treated on the battlefield with morphine became addicted to the opium based pain killer this was so prevalent that it soon came to be known as the 'Soldiers Disease'. The injured Confederate soldiers didn't have access to Morphine due to the successful Federal Naval blockade of all Southern Port cities. The Civil War was also the such first military conflict where the hypodermic needle was used to treat battlefield injuries. Before that it was a bottle of whisky and a saw to amputate limbs with.
Addicted 40 Years later
During the American Civil War, morphine was used freely, and wounded veterans returned home addicted with their kits of morphine and hypodermic needles.
During the Vietnam War as a result of allying with Southeast Asian heroin dealers in the fight against communism, the U.S. government created an epidemic of heroin addiction among American troops in Vietnam. At first this was a minor problem, as only low-grade heroin was being produced in the Golden Triangle. But in 1969 chemists from Hong Kong went to Laos and began producing high-grade Heroin. As a cover for purchasing the chemicals used in the process, Chinese gangster Huu Tim Heng built a Pepsi-Cola bottling plant in Vientiane, Laos, with money supplied by the U.S. Agency for International Development, an unofficial arm of the CIA. Heng's heroin was distributed by the smuggling apparatus of then-vice president Nguyen Cao Ky. The heroin was flown to Saigon by the South Vietnamese Air Force and sold by dealers, many of them teenage girls, at stands outside U.S. military bases. By 1971, 30% of low-ranking enlisted men were hooked.
More "Collateral Damage" from Iraq: Trauma, Drug Addiction and Prison
Tony Newman
Any service members who are incarcerated and separated from their families because of their addiction will become yet more "collateral damage" of this war. U.S. prisons are already filled with nonviolent drug law offenders, many serving long sentences for small amounts of drugs. It is easy for people to buy a bumper sticker and demand that we "support the troops" but, if we are going to walk the talk, we had better offer treatment--not a jail cell--as we help our brothers and sisters heal from war.
Lets not allow the Conservatives to flush these veterans down the drug war toilet. Initially I was very angry at the writer of the article who blamed all drug use in America on leftists. I thought about for a while and realized that this Neo-Con moron was merely another US citizen that had been duped by the most successful propaganda campaign ever thrust upon a population by it's own government. This vicious drug war propaganda campaign is still ongoing and is polluting the minds of our nations citizens making them believe that law abiding harmless pot smokers are criminals. This powerful drug warrior law enforcement bureaucracy and their wealthy allied lobbying groups that includes the thriving private prison industrial complex, urine testing companies , prison guard unions , and also the legal drug industry including alcohol , tobacco , and the international pharmaceutical drug companies all of which just don't want the competition from these banned substances. The drug warriors don't want a solution to the drug problem because that would end any need for them essentially they would be out of a job.