Drug problem in military

In May, the Army’s vice chief of staff, Gen. Peter Chiarelli, issued a memo urging commanders to treat and, when necessary, punish soldiers who are found to test positive for substance abuse or who fail blood-alcohol tests.

There were good reasons for this stand. Chiarelli, who also has headed a suicide task force and visited Fort Campbell this past spring, said he has found hundreds of cases in which soldiers failed those tests — sometimes more than once — but they didn’t receive either treatment or discharge.

Abuse problems

He told USA Today that alcohol and substance abuse problems may not be addressed when top staff officers are trying to keep up their numbers for deployments.

Ultimately, however, such a strategy is counterproductive. If alcohol and substance abuse problems aren’t treated, they fester. They contribute to mental health problems and can, in some cases, lead to suicide.

Moreover, a soldier who isn’t mentally, physically or emotionally fit due to abuse can put his fellow soldiers at risk.

Although the American involvement in Iraq appears to be winding down, U.S. troop strength is increasing in Afghanistan. In other words, the stresses with ongoing cycles of deployments that can trigger abuse aren’t going away any time soon.