Nationwide deaths including those of the military and veterans that are related to the black market Fentanyl is rising. Many victims got hooked on pain pills following medical procedures. Since 2000 more than a million people in the United States have died from drug overdoses, the majority of which were opioids. The crisis has also become a major U.S. foreign policy issue, with most supply coming from China and Mexico.
While China is the leading manufacturer of fentanyl, most of the fentanyl smuggled into the United States is through Mexico. The smugglers send it across in vehicles or with pedestrians, who travel with easily concealable amounts of drugs due to its high potency.
A 2.6 pound package contains more than fifty thousand lethal doses. Drug cartels now mix fentanyl into almost every drug sold on the street. They greatly benefit from this thriving market.
In the early 1990s, after the first Gulf War conflict, the U.S. witnessed sustained, year-over-year increases in overdose deaths, culminating most recently in over 100,000 lives lost during a single 12-month period ending in April 2021.
In the early years of this era, doctors were increasingly prescribing prescription opioids as a long-term treatment for patients with chronic pain, including many military veterans. Through pharmaceutical industry marketing efforts and the claims of several empirically limited early research observations, opioid pain medications were established as a relatively safe and non-addictive “gold standard” treatment for non-cancer pain.
“Operation Enduring Freedom” more soldiers were surviving battlefield injuries and dealing with service-related injuries through the use of opioid-based pain medications. Major innovations in battlefield medicine and protective equipment resulted in a higher survival rate for critically injured soldiers, injuries that would have been fatal in previous conflicts. Chronic pain has been widespread among recent generations of veterans: 48% of Operation Iraqi Freedom Operation “New Dawn” veterans of the second Gulf War entering the Department of Veterans Affairs’.
Another significant barrier and potential risk factor for overdose among veterans is a fundamental lack of access to healthcare services and low rates of utilization of the VA in particular. Fewer than 50% of veterans used at least one VA benefit (such as the GI Bill or GI mortgage). Only 6.1 million of the total 20.3 million veteran population (30%) have used VA healthcare. This is concerning on several fronts.
Much of the scientific knowledge about health risks comes from VA studies, which represent less than half of all military veterans at most. Veterans who do not have VA access, or choose not to use VA benefits also include many of those most historically disadvantaged and at greatest risk of opioid-related harm. This includes members of racial and ethnic minorities and those from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. “Other than honorable” discharges for active duty personnel with alcohol or substance use issues have excluded significant numbers of veterans from VA care.
Changes since 2017 in Public Health Law 115-141 have resulted in more service-connection for veterans with mental health concerns.
Help is available to you by calling the local VA hospital in Northport, 631.261.4400 or Veterans Crisis Line 1.800.273.8255, press 1 to talk to a veteran or have a confidential chat at >VeteransCrisisLine.net< or text to 838255.
If you have any question relating to veteran problems please do not hesitate to contact us and we will do our best to answer it.
Contact us at Drfred72@Gmail.com
Rev. Frederick Miller, Ph.D.