HELPING VETERANS OVERCOME THE BATTLE WITHIN

To the Editor:

Improving drug education and monitoring practices for our troops,
while critical, is but a first step to prevent the kind of tragedies
your article describes.

The Veterans Affairs and Defense Departments must adopt comprehensive
overdose prevention policies, including dispensing naloxone - an
overdose antidote - directly to service people who are prescribed
narcotics and to their families. In this way, we can help save the
lives of those who have risked theirs on the battlefield.

Narcotic replacement therapies must also be made available to soldiers
and veterans who become dependent on painkillers. Medicines like
methadone and buprenorphine are the most effective means of treating
opioid dependence, but are underused within the V.A., and outright
banned from coverage under military insurance - although they could
help thousands of veterans and troops today.

In addition, veterans suffering from pain and post-traumatic stress
disorder may respond better to medical marijuana. This safe and
effective medicine should be made available to all veterans who need
it.

Daniel Robelo

Berkeley, Calif.

The writer, a research associate at the Drug Policy Alliance, is a
co-author of the report "Healing a Broken System: Veterans Battling
Addiction and Incarceration."