It's easy for soldiers to score heroin in Afghanistan

Salon has a good article on the ease with which our troops can score smack in Afghanistan, the how and why, and what may lie in store for returning Vets. This is going to be with us for a generation or more. May require a site pass. Worth it.

With deepest apologies to Rudyard Kipling:

When yer bored out of yer skull on Afghanistan's plains,
Roll out yer needle and shoot up yer veins...

Simultaneously stressed and bored, U.S. soldiers are turning to the widely available drug for a quick escape.

BAGRAM, Afghanistan -- Just outside the main gate to Bagram airfield, a U.S. military installation in Afghanistan, sits a series of small makeshift shops known by locals as the Bagram Bazaar. For Afghans, it is the place to buy American goods, but the stalls that make up the heart of the bazaar are also well known for what they provide American soldiers stationed at Bagram. Walking through the bazaar it takes less than 10 minutes for a vendor in his early 20s to step out and ask, "You want whiskey?" "No, heroin," I tell him. He ushers me into his store with a smile.

Back in the States, it is not difficult to find a soldier who has returned from Afghanistan with an addiction. Nearly every veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom I have spoken with was familiar with heroin's availability on base, and most knew at least one soldier who used while deployed. In June, I spent a week in Southern California talking to veterans who had used while in Afghanistan. Getting one of them to talk to me on the record, however, was tougher.

But they also don't want to get in trouble with the military for talking to the media. They believe that tarnishing the military's image would bring far more consequences than actually getting caught for using (my em).

Yeah, the military's got enough PR problems these days. Yeesh.

The methadone clinic in the West Los Angeles VA hospital itself has seen significantly more. An individual familiar with the methadone program at the hospital says they are "lined up 50 or 60 deep each morning." While the source does not know the service record of the patients, the source says, "These are young guys." The VA has 250 substance abuse centers nationwide.

Belcher of New Directions expects the caseload to pick up later, echoing Jodie Trafton's words about a delay between addiction and treatment. The Afghanistan and Iraq veterans Belcher's group has been seeing have been discharged about two years on average. "That's how long it takes for them to be forced into a detox unit by family, or law enforcement, or circumstances."

Both Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are coming home with substance problems. But the reasons behind their addictions are frequently different.

Because the deployment to Iraq is so much larger than the deployment to Afghanistan, with more than five times as many troops in country at any given time, the VA is likely to be treating more Iraq veterans than Afghanistan veterans for substance abuse. Anecdotally, addiction among veterans returning from Iraq seems largely linked to post-traumatic stress disorder. Overall, more than a third of the VA's 350,000 substance abuse patients from every era also suffer from PTSD. For soldiers suffering from PTSD, the use of heroin and other illicit drugs is frequently a form of self-medication, and a way to keep their stress and trauma at bay.

Many of the addicts returning from Afghanistan, however, point to sheer boredom as the reason for their use. "I had to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week, but half the time there was nothing to do," one reservist who served at Bagram complained. Another expressed frustration at the number of contractors sharing their positions. "It really pissed us off that we were there doing the same job as KBR guys who were making three or four times as much. It sucked." Bored and disillusioned with the process and mission at hand, many soldiers turn to heroin to pass the time and escape the monotony. While heroin is available in Iraq, it is that much easier to obtain in Afghanistan, a source country.

But both conflicts have something in common with a prior war -- Vietnam. [...]

There's that 'V word' again. The parallels continue to grow:

The number of troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan recently passed 1.5 million early this year. No expert has yet ventured an estimate of what percentage will come home addicted to heroin. For now, Anthony Belcher is going with his gut. "You can make analogies to Vietnam ... Afghanistan and Iraq, especially Iraq, seem to be another Vietnam."

Track suits and running shoes instead of black pajamas and Ho Chi Minh sandals, sand instead of jungle. They're still shootin' AKs at our guys, though. Some things never change.

The 'how':

The shopkeeper apologizes for the delay in the courier's return, lights a cigarette, and tells me to call ahead next time. He offers me his cell number. "I can have it ready then, no wait. But now you have to wait 10, 20 minutes. OK?"

I ask why he doesn't have any heroin ready to sell, that last year shops had heroin on hand. He apologizes again, and says the district governor has cracked down. "They are sweeping the shops now, because of the Cheney bomb."

Now shopkeepers have moved big ticket items off-site for safety. Bulletproof vests, DVD players, military gear and other items stolen or traded for on base have been relocated to protect against confiscation. Heroin, hard liquor and Viagra, meanwhile, have been moved to locations within a 10- to 15-minute radius of the bazaar.

Gee, what a crackdown! 15 minutes is less time than you wait for a pizza.

There is nuch, much more in the article. Also, at the bottom of page 4 there are links to related articles that may be of interest. Check it out.