Medicated Soldiers

It seems that the general population is not the only place where people are taking far too much medication to get through the day.

In the military, a situation has developed where recruitment officers are so hungry for breathing bodies that virtually no medication will disqualify one for deployment even after multiple tours of duty. Approximately 15% of those on active duty serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are now on anti-depressants, anti-anxiety medication and sleeping pills. Some soldiers take a combination of all of these as well as pain killers and alcohol. A combination of Klonopin for anxiety, Zoloft for depression and Ambien for sleep is not unusual. It has been reported that Seroquel is being used to help with nightmares although that is not an approved use for the drug. Seroquel is used to treat bi-polar disease and schizophrenia and some side effects include dizziness and paranoia.

Frankly, the idea of so many heavily armed soldiers with these amounts of medication in them scares the living hell out of me. I would suspect that all horrible incidents of murder and suicide have not been reported. An army which is drugged to this extent cannot be effective in the long run.