Fentanyl deaths among troops more than doubled from 2017 to 2021

[rangerrebew]

Fentanyl deaths among troops more than doubled from 2017 to 2021
By Meghann Myers
 Wednesday, Feb 15

 
Fentanyl, a drug that has gained widespread national attention in recent years for its role in the U.S. opioid epidemic, was involved in 174 overdoses, or about 52% of overdose cases, in the military between 2017 and 2021, according to Defense Department data. Fatal fentanyl overdoses more than doubled during that span, from 36% of overdoses in 2017 to 88% in 2021.

The Pentagon compiled the data as part of a request from a bipartisan group of senators in September. The data also show that while the Air Force and Army saw small increases in overall overdose deaths during that time period, those same statistics among Marines and sailors doubled.


“Our military is not immune to the opioid epidemic. We have lost countless service members to overdose, and if we fail to take action to protect those in uniform, we will lose countless more,” Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said in a release Wednesday. “The Department of Defense’s latest report underscores the urgency of this moment and our need to ensure access to quality care and treatment without stigma or shame.”

https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-military/2023/02/15/fentanyl-deaths-among-troops-more-than-doubled-from-2017-to-2021/

[Elderberry]

'You Can't Fix the Problem If You're in Denial:' The Military's Surge of Fentanyl Overdoses

Military.com By Kelsey Baker 17 Feb 2023

Carole De Nola, a Gold Star mother whose son had died of a fentanyl overdose, stood at the elegant San Francisco War Memorial for a Christmas party in 2022 with a rolled-up scroll festooned with long holiday ribbons in her hand.

Inside the bundle of documents was De Nola's appeal for congressional attention to the accumulating toll on service members of the drug that had killed her son, a dangerous synthetic opioid.

De Nola spotted the target of her appeal, then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and made a beeline for her, only to be swarmed by aides who took the scroll and swept De Nola aside.

Ari McGuire, De Nola's only child, had been a 23-year-old reconnaissance scout with Fort Bragg's storied 82nd Airborne Division. He'd wanted to go to Ranger School and had already received an Army Commendation Medal in 2018 for a deployment to Afghanistan.

But on a Friday night in August 2019, De Nola got a call from an Army officer: Her son was on life support in a Fayetteville, North Carolina, hospital. Ari's heart had stopped beating while riding in an Uber, coming through the gate at Fort Bragg. An ambulance had managed to revive him, and Ari was induced into a coma upon arriving at the hospital.

De Nola, her husband Joseph, and the cantor from their synagogue had made the daylong trek from California to North Carolina to say goodbye to Ari. "When we got there, the doctor told us that there was nothing they could do. I'm sure that the whole hospital heard me screaming."

Ari had unknowingly overdosed on fentanyl. It's 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, and tiny amounts can kill. "We didn't know what had happened," De Nola said. "It was absolutely the biggest nightmare I could ever imagine."

Ari's death was one of 332 fatal overdoses within the military, according to information newly released by the Pentagon on ODs between 2017 and 2021 that was sent to lawmakers.

The vast majority of those have been newly categorized as "accidental." The five-year period saw 15,000 non-fatal ODs amongst the active-duty force.

More: https://www.military.com/daily-news/2023/02/17/you-cant-fix-problem-if-youre-denial-militarys-surge-of-fentanyl-overdoses.html?ESRC=eb_230220.nl