The ancient art of acupuncture and the U.S. military aren’t two things that you think would go together, but they’ve developed a surprising partnership over the past 20-plus years.
The United States is presently in the grip of an opioid epidemic. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), since 1999, 841,000 people have died of drug overdoses. In 2019, 70 percent of overdose deaths involved an opioid. And the problem seems to be getting worse.
The opioid crisis extends to the U.S. military as well. Combat puts U.S. troops and veterans at substantial risk of injury and exposure to prescription (and non-prescription) opioids. It seems that soldiers who see combat are even more susceptible to opioid addiction than service members who deployed, but never see battle, according to a National Bureau of Economic Research study, “Did The War on Terror Ignite an Opioid Epidemic?”…