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May 16, 2014
The VA, cannabis, and PTSD
No sooner did I complain about the fact that the drug war adds up to bad medicine than a news item reflecting that reality turns up on national news. I just witnessed a somewhat impassioned debate on CNN's Crossfire on the question of alleged VA delays in care for "wounded Warriors" and a recent spate of 40 deaths allegedly related to those delays.Putting together what I remember from my Army days when I cared for wounded GIs from Vietnam at a US Army hospital in Japan, and then later at Letterman General Hospital in San Francisco, I was reminded of the differences between then and now: the Vietnam war was fought mostly by young draftees, many of whom were just out of High School and definitely not career soldiers. They have since been replaced by a smaller "all volunteer" Army intended to reduce reliance on a draft, but which has also been severely stressed by deployments to the Middle East and other hot spots.
I have no data on retention stats, but suspect they are down and that there must be increased reliance on reserve units to meet troop commitments.
Since I also know that PTSD has been a common problem, I suspect that the feds' hard-nosed policy on cannabis may be about to catch up with them big time.
Doctor Tom
Posted by tjeffo at May 16, 2014 12:31 AM