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2022-11-28 -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
‘These Kids Are Dying' ‐ Inside the Overdose Crisis Sweeping Fort Bragg
BLUF:
[Rolling Stone] A staggering total of 109 soldiers assigned to Fort Bragg died in 2020 and 2021. Dozens have lost their lives there to drug overdoses. Now, their families are demanding answers — and accountability.

Her son’s story is not atypical. He had dabbled in drugs before, including marijuana and Ecstasy. "He tried things," Andrea says. "Zach was very transparent." But he never would have chosen to take fentanyl, she believes. "My son was an EMT already," she says. "He knows what drugs are what."

Bracken is one of three Green Beret trainees, or soldiers in the Special Warfare Training Group, to die of a drug overdose recently. (The others were Pfc. Jamie Boger, in March 2020, from cocaine and fentanyl; and Staff Sgt. Van-Michael Ellis, in October 2021, from cocaine and alcohol.) The incident occurred when Bracken was off duty, at a friend’s wedding. His blood-alcohol level was 0.11 percent at the time that he died, at 10:35 a.m. on Dec. 5, 2020, according to a report obtained through the FOIA. Bracken’s system also contained 0.012 milligrams of fentanyl per liter of blood — a lethal dose.

Emphasis added
Posted by Besoeker 2022-11-28 04:49|| || Front Page|| [11150 views ]  Top

#1 This was not the type of issues I heard about while I was working around the various groups. I guess even after 30 years, and handful of Wars and Conflicts, things change, even at Ft. Bragg/Pope AFB.



Posted by NN2N1 2022-11-28 06:15||   2022-11-28 06:15|| Front Page Top

#2 I gather that fentanyl is so lethal that you could die from an amount you could not even see. So if the stuff is around, a couple of grains stuck to your hand from somebody else's stash could get into your drink and kill you.
True? Such an easy overdose when you're not planning on dying....
Posted by Richard Aubrey 2022-11-28 07:05||   2022-11-28 07:05|| Front Page Top

#3 Are urinalysis tests still being conducted by the Army ?
Posted by Besoeker 2022-11-28 07:07||   2022-11-28 07:07|| Front Page Top

#4 ...the 70s are calling.

When you destroy history, you get to learn it all over again.
Posted by Procopius2k 2022-11-28 07:27||   2022-11-28 07:27|| Front Page Top

#5 From what I understand it is a double whammy. The cartels like to add it to any and everything to make whatever drug more potent/addicting. Then you have cross contamination from the various drugs being processed in the same facilities as fentanyl. We aren’t dealing with lab grade conditions in these places. I’m sure some lower level dealers are stepping on their dope and then cutting fentanyl back in to boost it back up. Dope is expensive. Fentanyl is cheap.
Posted by Lowspark 2022-11-28 07:29||   2022-11-28 07:29|| Front Page Top

#6 
#3 Are urinalysis tests still being conducted by the Army ?
Posted by: Besoeker 2022-11-28 07:07

Beso,

Something tells me they're not, because the leadership knows what they'll find.

Mike
Posted by MikeKozlowski 2022-11-28 07:40||   2022-11-28 07:40|| Front Page Top

#7 ...Putin has his way of downsizing his army, the swamp has theirs.
Posted by Procopius2k 2022-11-28 08:24||   2022-11-28 08:24|| Front Page Top

#8 If they only do a urinalysis, the kids can pretty much do any drug they want except smoke marijuana. Everything else clears they system in a couple of days.
Posted by Lowspark 2022-11-28 08:29||   2022-11-28 08:29|| Front Page Top

#9 ^ And hair tests are expensive and not usable on a buzz cut
Posted by Frank G 2022-11-28 09:00||   2022-11-28 09:00|| Front Page Top

#10 I was at Bragg in 1980. The post Viet-Nam Ft Bragg was a mess. Lack of direction, drugs, and booze were a real problem. It almost sounds like a post war cycle. Bragg clamped down on drugs by increasing their testing and DUI check points. Things finally settled down by the mid 80's. Cocaine only stays in the body at a traceable level for 3 days, so its probably the drug of choice now. The Fentanyl getting into it is a national problem. We need to look at mandatory penalties for possession and sale of drugs that test positive for it.
Posted by 49 Pan 2022-11-28 10:11||   2022-11-28 10:11|| Front Page Top

#11 ^ Carefully scheduled drug use is not the norm among users.
Posted by M. Murcek 2022-11-28 10:45||   2022-11-28 10:45|| Front Page Top

#12 Post Viet-Nam, a "surprise" barracks inspection in Germany would have Orderly Room snitches calling ahead, and the inspection, even last minute snap ones, would find very little, but if you looked outside at the lawn behind the barracks, the litter looked like a Drug-Mart shopping zone. It took hard-nosed testing, and determined culling of the ranks to clean the mess up over years. Sad to see it returning and I question if the gender-queer CO and 1SGT will fix this by stamping their little feet.
Posted by NoMoreBS 2022-11-28 12:08||   2022-11-28 12:08|| Front Page Top

#13 A sane, responsible, competent government would put those soldiers to work to secure the border. Then slap heavy, punitive tariffs on China and Mexico until the flow of fentanyl stops. They're making war on us. Make war on them.
Posted by Abu Uluque 2022-11-28 13:06||   2022-11-28 13:06|| Front Page Top

#14 The US gummint is making war on us. The Mexes and Chinee are proxies.
Posted by M. Murcek 2022-11-28 13:08||   2022-11-28 13:08|| Front Page Top

#15  ^ Yes, M, but I was thinking of a sane, responsible, competent government, not the crooks and treasonous bastards who are running it now.
Posted by Abu Uluque 2022-11-28 14:58||   2022-11-28 14:58|| Front Page Top

#16 I think the answer is to rename Ft Bragg so that the graphs of deaths and suicides start over.
Posted by Super Hose 2022-11-28 15:30||   2022-11-28 15:30|| Front Page Top

#17 ^ they're working on that now since Gen. Bragg was of the CSA type. I'd object myself as a good reading of the war indicates that the individual was an incompetent egotist who probably was worth more than several union generals in effectively advancing the end of that war.
Posted by Procopius2k 2022-11-28 15:42||   2022-11-28 15:42|| Front Page Top

#18 The scam of all good Quality Engineers is to make a superficial process change that allows you to declare the need for a new graph which erases your previous inability to identify and address the root cause.
Posted by Super Hose 2022-11-28 16:42||   2022-11-28 16:42|| Front Page Top

#19 The lack of Gov doing anythiung about Fentanyl feel like folks are culling the heard, or allowing the herd to cull itself.
Posted by ruprecht 2022-11-28 17:20||   2022-11-28 17:20|| Front Page Top

#20 "We need to look at mandatory penalties for possession and sale of drugs that test positive for it."

Totally disagree.
Posted by DooDahMan 2022-11-28 17:22||   2022-11-28 17:22|| Front Page Top

#21 Clearly allowed on purpose.
Posted by Woodrow 2022-11-28 21:22||   2022-11-28 21:22|| Front Page Top

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