Too many soldiers and veterans have addiction problems.  Some apparently went into the military using opiates and some starting using the drugs once they got into the combat zones.

Coming back to the states with drug addiction problems will only compound an already difficult situation – how to fit back into the world after experiencing war and a life that would be difficult for most of us to understand.

Oxycontin, heroin, Vicodin or any other opiate is not going to help, but effective drug treatment and assistance in life planning will.

Certainly with all our high tech military technology we likewise have the capability to help these men and women.

“The U.S. could face a wave of addiction and mental-health problems among returning veterans of the Iraq and Afghan wars greater than that resulting from the Vietnam War, according to experts at the recent Wounds of War conference sponsored by the National Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA*) at Columbia University (Join Together is a project of CASA).

Rather than the heroin addictions many Vietnam veterans brought back with them from Southeast Asia, however, today’s returning soldiers are more likely to be addicted to prescription medications — the very opiates prescribed to them by the military to ease stress or pain — or stimulants used by soldiers to remain alert in combat situations.

“I think there’s a lot more [soldiers addicted to] pharmacological opiates than the data show,” said John A. Renner Jr., M.D., associate professor of psychiatry at the Boston University School of Medicine and associate chief of psychiatry at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Boston Healthcare System. “A lot of them were using opiates before they went, and a lot are reporting that opiates are freely available in combat areas.”…