With the strict crack down on marijuana use, soldiers who frequently used this drug were forced to find alternatives means to help them disengage from the pressures and boredom of the war. For many soldiers, heroin became a popular and abundantly available alternative. “Under the French colonial administration Vietnam had a government controlled opium monopoly and therefore a tradition of opium smoking that soldiers visiting the brothels and gambling dens of Saigon encountered.” and Heroin was easily purchased by soldiers throughout Vietnam during the 1970’s. It was frequently packaged in ¼ to ½ grams in small easily concealable plastic vials. Typically 95% pure, heroin in Vietnam could be bought for 10-20 times less than that of heroin
…show more content…
Many soldiers who had come to depend on heroin in Vietnam faced many consequences such as addiction, dishonorable discharge from the military, and for some death. Addiction became a struggle for many soldiers who converted to using this highly addictive drug. While an exact estimate of the number of heroin users and/or addicts is not available, during the first quarter of 1971 over 3,600 soldiers in the Army had asked for help with drug abuse problems related to heroin. Towards the end of the war heroin addiction had become such a large threat that the military needed to take action. With the alarming rate of heroin use, soldiers who were preparing to return home to the United States were not allowed to leave Vietnam until after they had kicked their drug addictions. In order for men these men to be allowed to return home, they were required to submit to a drug screening by providing a urine sample prior to being allowed to board their flights back to the United States. “by 1973, the Defense Department was collecting 4 million urine specimens annually for worldwide screening of all U.S. troops in thirteen drug-testing laboratories.” In order to do so Drug Abuse Control Programs were set up by the United States Army, Vietnam. Their policy was to make sure that “every individual who is identified through the urinalysis programs or …show more content…
In the event that a soldier or any other military personal failed a urine test twice the soldier would qualify as a “212”, which labeled them as a drug addict and was immediately sent back to the United States with a dishonorable discharge from the military and a loss of all military and veteran benefits. A report on Administrative discharges for drug abuse shows that in just the army alone the number of undesirable administrative discharges attributed to drugs between 1969 to 1970 jumped from 189 to 406; many of which were contributed to heroin abuse. Deaths in the military due to drug overdoses were not an uncommon occurrence in Vietnam as well. Looking at figure 1, we can see that in the calendar year of 1970 alone, 69 total deaths in Vietnam were caused from opiates; which was double the amount of any other drug surveyed in this chart. Charts like the one below, which was presented to the Hughes Subcommittee on Alcoholism and Narcotics by Roger T. Kelley shows just how concerning these numbers were for military
Many soldiers who had come to depend on heroin in Vietnam faced many consequences such as addiction, dishonorable discharge from the military, and for some death. Addiction became a struggle for many soldiers who converted to using this highly addictive drug. While an exact estimate of the number of heroin users and/or addicts is not available, during the first quarter of 1971 over 3,600 soldiers in the Army had asked for help with drug abuse problems related to heroin. Towards the end of the war heroin addiction had become such a large threat that the military needed to take action. With the alarming rate of heroin use, soldiers who were preparing to return home to the United States were not allowed to leave Vietnam until after they had kicked their drug addictions. In order for men these men to be allowed to return home, they were required to submit to a drug screening by providing a urine sample prior to being allowed to board their flights back to the United States. “by 1973, the Defense Department was collecting 4 million urine specimens annually for worldwide screening of all U.S. troops in thirteen drug-testing laboratories.” In order to do so Drug Abuse Control Programs were set up by the United States Army, Vietnam. Their policy was to make sure that “every individual who is identified through the urinalysis programs or …show more content…
In the event that a soldier or any other military personal failed a urine test twice the soldier would qualify as a “212”, which labeled them as a drug addict and was immediately sent back to the United States with a dishonorable discharge from the military and a loss of all military and veteran benefits. A report on Administrative discharges for drug abuse shows that in just the army alone the number of undesirable administrative discharges attributed to drugs between 1969 to 1970 jumped from 189 to 406; many of which were contributed to heroin abuse. Deaths in the military due to drug overdoses were not an uncommon occurrence in Vietnam as well. Looking at figure 1, we can see that in the calendar year of 1970 alone, 69 total deaths in Vietnam were caused from opiates; which was double the amount of any other drug surveyed in this chart. Charts like the one below, which was presented to the Hughes Subcommittee on Alcoholism and Narcotics by Roger T. Kelley shows just how concerning these numbers were for military