Health-Related Issues: Effects Of Drugs On Military Personnel

Effects of Drugs on Military Personnel Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Effects of Drugs on Military Personnel THESIS STATEMENT: Substance/ drug abuse is a common problem among the military personnel that needs to be addressed since it results in family breakups, criminal activities, health-related issues such as addiction, and occupational and social challenges. Golub, A., & Bennett, A. S. (2013). Introduction to the special issue: Drugs, wars, military personnel, and veterans. Substance Use Misuse. 48(10). 1-6 Golub and Bennett (2013) argue that drugs and war have a long history since military personnel tend to use drugs as a means of preparing for combat. Studies have also shown that drugs are often used as a means of cultural bonding, enabling military personnel to cope with the psychological and physical impact of service as well as memory and injury. This paper is relevant since it analyses the impacts of substance abuse and the problems associated with misuse and how it affects the families of military personnel. Studies have also shown that drugs have a negative impact since they affect families, health, employment, functioning, and the involvement of criminal justice. In addition, this document is relevant since it analyses the impacts and nature of drug abuse, particularly with the emergence of technological development and medical innovation. Ski, L. (2016). The drugs that built a super soldier. Retrieved from /health/archive/2016/04/the-drugs-that-built-a-super-soldier/477183/ Despite of numerous research studies identifying the negative impacts of drugs and substance abuse, some scholars have come up with information pertaining to the use of drugs to empower military personnel. Ski (2016) says that drugs have been used by the military personnel in the U.S. to build super soldiers during the Vietnam War. Studies have shown the U.S. military used drugs during the Vietnam War to increase their speed and act as painkillers and steroids to enable them to handle extended combat. In addition, studies have also shown that Vietnam War cannot be regarded as a conventional war since it was a formless conflict that lacked tactic and strategic principles. Therefore, drugs were often used as a means of empowering the American soldiers taking into consideration that the Vietcong were fighting in a surprising, unexpected and deceptive way with an aim of negating the strengths of the Americans and taking advantage of their weaknesses. Larson, M. J., Wooten, N. R., Adams, R. S., & Merrick, E. L. (2012). Military Combat Deployments and Substance Use: Review and Future Directions. J Soc Work Pract Addict. 12(1): 6–27. Larson, et al (2012) argue that Afghanistan and Iraq veterans go through extreme injuries and other stressors during deployment, and this is the main reason why they engage in substance abuse. However, the military personnel have established treatment and prevention programs in order to tackle the problems of increased suicide rates as well as post-traumatic stress disorder among the troops. However, limited research studies have been carried out to examine how military personnel control the impacts of drug use and alcohol misuse, including tackling the problems associated with substance abuse. This do...