Riders On The Storm
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There are always sure images that come to mind when I recall the Vietnam War and my percentage in it serving in the U.S. Navy. The 1971 song by The Doors, “Riders on the Storm,” fills my head. We were preparing for another WestPac tour, and with that come memories of smoking marijuana and drinking beer. A rather huge portion of the men in my section smoked grass, and often got high while on duty. I share this with you because I saw video of our soldiers walking through poppy fields in Afghanistan and could not help but wonder how big the problem is now. The military knew it had a bad circumstance in Vietnam, and in the post-war years made great strides in curbing the problem. Consider this– with regards to 25% of servicemen and women back in the early 1980′s had applied illegal drugs. By the end of the 1990′s, it had dropped to 3%. The Department of Defense (DoD), according to the American Forces Press Service, had looked at the two major distinct elements of the problem-supply and demand. To reduce the demand for drugs, the military ramped up it is instructional and deterrence efforts. Understand that the military, not similar to society in general, has a big hammer to drop when it is personnel are involved with drugs. Rather than prosecuting an individual in court, they discharge them. For those who do not want to leave the military, it’s an effective deterrent. The DoD also is active in attempting to prevent the flow of illegal drugs into the country. Where are the drugs coming from? How are they coming into the country? Getting back to the effigy of our soldiers in the poppy fields, recognise that Afghanistan is one of the world’s leading suppliers of opium. From opium comes morphine and heroin. The opium from Afghanistan, in most cases, is shipped through Europe, as narcotic traffickers use a pipeline to ship and trade opium, and that pipeline is likewise used to smuggle illegal aliens, weapons and cash for financing terrorism. If you thought out the logic of illegal drug use to an extreme, you could in all probability at a great deal of point find a case for asserting that drug use was an act of treason. But consider one point-if I wanted to ruin a country, is it more comfortable and for less to do it by demolishing that country’s youth through drug addiction, or is it more effective to wage military war? The DoD will have to protect it is ranks and is doing so effectively. U.S. military personnel may unwittingly be supporting our oppositions by buying, using and transporting drugs. That can not be tolerated. There are no excuses. The military has instituted more sensible drug testing, which observe a assortment of illegal drugs. Drugs like ecstasy are of queer concern, because it’s readily available. In 2000, for example, the military discharged approximately 1000 humans for ecstasy use. Newer tests are being produced to exaggerate the “window of detection” for this drug and others, to observe traces of the drug in the urine for longer periods after use. Still, according to the DoD, marijuana proceeds to be the most to a considerable degree used illegal drug in the military. Chronic use of marijuana leads to long-term effects on the brain, such as memory loss and learning deficits. It’s not a soft drug, it’s a dangerous threat. Exhaustive testing procedures are followed to insure that exact results are attained, and it is getting growingly more difficult to “beat” the test, in spite of a seemingly endless list of things to do to mask the drugs. The military has a zero-tolerance policy for it is personnel. In American society humans think this is harsh, but for the military it is an sheer requirement for so a heap of reasons. Our armed forces have an enormous responsibility, and anybody who has a sense of recent history may comprehend that there is no place in the military for drug use. Our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq are in harms way, so any impairment of their capacity to carry out their mission is deadly. The video of the solider in the poppy fields just reminds me of how huge the drug problem is. Supply and demand are keys to understanding our drug problem at home. Education in the home, in churches and synagogues, in the schools and in the workplace are critical constituents in preventing illegal drug use. As for deterrents, we can’t discharge personnel; we can’t lock every one up; so fighting the cow after it has left the barn is exceedingly difficult. One line from “Riders on the Storm” talks in regards to a “killer on the road” and for us that killer is illegal drug use, drug abuse and alcohol abuse. It’s everybody’s problem. It’s a war and we’re all in it. |
