This report highlights the gross injustice of holding service members and veterans entirely responsible for drug reliance that is facilitated, if not encouraged, when it serves military purposes. That injustice is aggravated when it is used as an excuse to kick people out of the military, thereby denying them benefits. It is further aggravated when treatment is withheld, both for their injuries and for their addictions, and aggravated further still when it is punished with incarceration.
One must wonder whose interests then are being served?
(above link)
I want to make two observations about this. The
first is that taking a drug is not currently illegal in
this country. There have been attempts to make it
so, but the most reasoned arguments suggest that
this is not a particularly useful way of reducing
harm. You can impose civil or employment
penalties for detecting drugs, particularly if you work in areas where drugs may cause impairment
to performance. This is currently a huge issue in the
military, where use of drugs outside what you might
call ‘active’ employment is causing great tension
and leading to the potential loss of very highly
trained personnel.
(Estimating drug harm 2009)
:you_crazy
