Same Highs, Different Drugs
By Jake Stephens
All names of sources were changed in order to protect the identity of active servicemen and veterans who spoke on record for this story.
If the topic of the substance abuse in the military came up, the common image would be this: a soldier in the jungles of Vietnam, stressed, strained, and stringing himself out with a syringe plunging into his arm. That image may have been a true one once upon a time, but the truth is different now. The difference? Conscription vs volunteer and illegal vs legal drugs.
Drugs have always been an integral part of military life over the past century. From WWI on, soldiers and veterans have used alcohol, tobacco and other drugs as part of general military culture and as a coping mechanism alike.
You won’t see active duty soldiers shooting, smoking or snorting illicit drugs today. These men and women don’t want to lose their jobs from popping a drug test. But just because they stay away from illegal drugs doesn’t mean soldiers aren’t still getting high.
The difference between the image of illicit drug use in Vietnam and today’s highs may largely rely on conscription vs volunteer. Those who volunteer know the rules, and they want to be a part of the military and hold the job. But in Vietnam, drafted soldiers may have been far less inclined to resist a temptation or urge of illicit drug use.
“Vietnam was a draftee war. Which means soldiers went to war because they were told to. Not because they gave a s—t about the army itself. Which means they were led to drugs,” says Harry, an active duty serviceman in the army.
Harry also recants his father’s experience during the first Gulf War. When the army grows, the soldiers aren’t all squared away, which can lead to the illicit drug use in the military, Harry says.
But when most serviceman are more similar to Harry then the draftees in the Vietnam war, that means that illicit drugs may be off the table, but legal drugs are game on.
Drinking culture reigns supreme, and has from WWI to today. The drug of choice has always been alcohol. As a coping mechanism and as a way to relax or unwind, the hands reach for the bottle most often.
“Drinking is a very big part of not only army culture but also military culture,” Harry says. “You go to physical training, work, and then go drink. You wake up in the morning and go run at 8, probably still f—ing plastered. I don’t know why it is this way, I just know it always has been this way.”
Tobacco goes hand in hand with alcohol as well. WWI saw an increased use of tobacco amongst Americans, but all throughout the war, tobacco was essential for almost every soldier.
General John Joseph “Black Jack” Pershing, Commander-in-Chief of the American Expeditionary Force, 1917, once explained that tobacco was as essential as bullets during the Great War, and that trend has only continued.
Phil, a veteran who served in the mid 2000’s in a combat unit, recounted the running joke about tobacco use during his service. “Everyone smoked, it was, ‘if you got em, smoke em.’”
Phil talks about and confirms his experience with alcohol and tobacco a decade ago mirrored both the use during WWI and Harry’s current experience. But Phil has experienced a deeper side to substance use in the military. Substances that provide an almost identical high to methamphetamine and heroin, their distilled illicit siblings. These substances are prescription opiates and amphetamines that Phil said use of ran rampant during his service.
Phil describes it as an “open secret.” Everyone was doing it, and no one cared. “You could go to the doctor and say you have a headache, and you’ll get ten Percocet,” Phil said.
Prescription drugs were easily available to all, from Phil’s experience. It was drug use just like any other drug, just in the form of pills. The soldiers who chose to get high might not have been sticking heroin filled syringes into their arm, but simply going to the doctor, getting handed opiates and then popping the pills.
“Penalties were strict if you got caught with weed or coke in your system. When it’s as easy to go get prescriptions, why would you risk that when you could just go take some Adderall,” Phil said.
Drug use now may not be the image pictured in Vietnam War films, but the same high is achievable, from just a slightly different version of the drug.
But what Phil experienced during his time and in his branch might differ from veteran to veteran. Jack, an air force veteran didn’t encounter the same use of prescription drugs, but he experienced different type of legal drug use from his colleagues.
“There was a huge problem with synthetic marijuana. [Called] Spice, everyone was on that spice stuff, because it didn’t show up [on drug screens]. They [the military] just weren’t ready for it. It doesn’t show up the same in a piss test. You could have bought it anywhere,” Jack said.
Synthetic marijuana came in many variations. Used as an alternative for marijuana, synthetic marijuana was a dangerous, un-researched alternative that could pose serious health risks to those that chose to use it. Synthetic marijuana has become illegal since then.
Jack recalls that the military wasn’t able to stay ahead of it. “Until they started cracking down on it in the civilian world, was when they started cracking down on it in the military.”
The drug use was there, but again, fear of losing one’s job keeps servicemen away from illicit drugs, and pulls those looking for a high toward the legal or quasi-legal substances.
Expectedly, some who transition back into civilian life after service might hold onto drugs and alcohol as a coping mechanism. Harry, having grown up into a military family, witnessed many friends who used alcohol to cope with difficult experiences.
“As far as veterans go, especially combat veterans, since they have been designed to think with a tough guy mentality and no weaknesses or feelings allowed, most have been through very intense experiences. They never talk about it, they seem to push it away. So I think booze seems to be a way to cope with those haunting experiences they had in combat,” Harry said.
Phil attests that even the prescription drug addiction can manifest and continue along with veterans. But veterans don’t need to switch to the illicit versions of the prescriptions they used during their service.
“It’s still pretty easy to get meds from the VA,” he says. Not as easy as it was when deployed, but still pretty easy.
And Phil says that the VA doesn’t do the best job of treating veterans who suffer from substance abuse issues. He says that veterans are expected to take things into their own hands.
Jack also recounts that the VA helps those who help themselves, but vets are usually left on their own in handling these issues and seeking help when they need it.
Sometimes, these substances are being abused and used as a crutch, and sometimes substances are used beneficially and responsibly as a way to cope with PTSD.
Jack describes that with how broad of a term PTSD is, and the range in which experiences and how one handles experiences ranges significantly from one veteran to the next, methods of treatment and coping also vary.
Some vets, Jack describes, might cope with PTSD by taking alone time in the woods for a few hours every so often, others might smoke prescribed medical marijuana to help deal with PTSD, others might drink, and some might handle their PTSD without any outside resources, substances, or habits. It really is a very subjective issue Jack describes, and resources like the VA can’t blanket the issue, nor should they.
From tobacco and alcohol use in WWI to illicit drug use in present day, drug use in the military started well over a 100 years ago. Alcohol, the most prevalent, has always been part of military culture, and soldiers in Vietnam used illegal drugs. Today, the scene has changed, and soldiers have even changed.
Without conscription, the men and women in service are there by choice, almost entirely throwing illegal drugs out the window, but the legal drugs stay. Switching from heroin to prescription opioids, from marijuana to synthetic spice, meth to Adderall, and the continuing tried and true alcohol and tobacco use, substance abuse in the military don’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.