1945 By Steve Balestrieri 9/7/2022
Fentanyl and more – How China and Mexico are poisoning our military: The Army is in the midst of a recruiting shortfall, despite a record retention rate, and the recent news isn’t going to help its recruiting matters anytime soon. Still smarting over a sexual assault crisis that rose by 13 percent, there is an alarming increase in drug overdose deaths, even among elite units.
A recent article in Rolling Stone magazine highlighted the problem that Ft. Bragg, NC, has with illicit drugs, and death by drug overdose is now the leading cause of death for soldiers at the sprawling military base that is the home of the 82nd Airborne and the 18th Airborne Corps, as well as the 3rd Special Forces Group. The Special Forces training pipeline is also located at Ft. Bragg.
But it isn’t just a Ft. Bragg problem. It is an Army and a nationwide issue that has to be addressed. During this year’s college spring break, six cadets from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point were hospitalized in Florida for ingesting cocaine laced with fentanyl.
The number of drug overdose deaths is rising alarmingly in the U.S. In 2020, there were nearly 92,000 overdose deaths in the U.S., with 56,516 dying from synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. In 2021, there were more than 107,000 Americans that died of drug overdoses, which is the highest annual death toll ever recorded and a 15 percent increase over 2020.
But a closer look reveals that much of the illicit drugs – but not all – responsible for accidental overdoses can be traced to the Mexican drug cartels who get their precursor chemicals from China.
More:
https://www.19fortyfive.com/2022/09/the-u-s-army-has-a-fentanyl-problem-thanks-to-mexico-and-china/
