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A whole bunch of troops have died from drug overdoses, the US army reportedly informed Congress
Greater than 15,000 US army service members have overdosed on illicit medication up to now 5 years, and 332 of these circumstances have resulted in loss of life, the Pentagon has reportedly admitted in response to questions from Congress.
The information was given this week to 5 US senators, led by Massachusetts Democrats Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren, Rolling Stone reported on Wednesday. The senators had written to Secretary of Protection Lloyd Austin final September, demanding info on overdoses within the ranks, after the journal revealed that as many as 30 US troopers died from overdoses at Fort Bragg in 2020 and 2021. The bottom in North Carolina is the headquarters for America’s particular forces, amongst different issues.
“The lack of a single service member to a deadly overdose is one loss too many,” Markey stated on Wednesday. “With a whole lot of deadly overdoses reported on US army bases, the toll is mounting. We are able to and should cease America’s overdose disaster.”
The lack of a single service member to a deadly overdose is one loss too many. With a whole lot of deadly overdoses reported on U.S. army bases, the toll is mounting—we are able to and should cease America’s overdose disaster. https://t.co/w0VcanB9Eu
— Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) February 15, 2023
Fentanyl accounted for greater than half of the army overdose deaths, the Pentagon stated. In actual fact, deaths from the artificial opioid have greater than doubled since 2017, following an analogous trajectory with America’s general drug disaster. The US had practically 107,000 civilian overdose deaths in 2021, together with greater than 71,000 linked to fentanyl, in response to authorities information.
The army’s overdose deaths have paralleled these within the civilian inhabitants in different methods, too. For example, 96% of those that died had been enlisted service members, somewhat than officers, simply because the overwhelming majority of civilian circumstances contain folks with out faculty levels. The overwhelming majority of service members who died from drug overdoses had been white males underneath the age of 33.
There have been excessive concentrations of overdoses at bases that host Military soldiers, Inexperienced Berets and different elite troopers, Rolling Stone wrote, claiming “that is doubtless no coincidence,” as these formations have “borne practically all the brunt of the previous decade of warfare in Afghanistan and a half-dozen different international locations.”
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