Substance abuse and drug overdose deaths are “serious” problems among U.S. service members, the Pentagon acknowledged this week.
The Pentagon responded to a group of five senators who brought forth concerns about the fentanyl crisis among U.S. service members after Rolling Stone reported “at least 14 and as many as 30 American soldiers had died from overdose deaths” at Fort Bragg in North Carolina in 2020 and 2021. Fort Bragg houses the Airborne and the Special Forces Operation.
In late September 2022, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), along with Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) sent a letter to the Pentagon requesting five years of in-depth data regarding accidental overdoses in the military (pdf)….