NCJ Number
230181
Date Published
February 2010
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This update provides an overview of issues related to drug use in the military, drug abuse and the threat to returning veterans, homeless female veterans, and an update on law enforcement drug trafficking efforts.
Abstract
Included in this update are 1) results of a recent U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) survey on illicit drug use among active-duty military personnel showed a significant increase in nonmedical use of prescription drugs among active-duty DOD personal, doubling from 2 percent in 2002 to 4 percent in 2005, with the rate from 2005 to 2008 almost tripling to 11 percent; 2) a note from the director of the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of National Drug Control Policy on the often unseen threat to veterans returning home with issues of substance abuse; 3) a brief overview of a new transitional housing facility for homeless female veterans and their children in Cocoa, FL, Operation Home Front; and 4) recent successes in law enforcement efforts to stem the tide of drug trafficking as seen through a massive drug trafficking sweep across the United States with more than 300 people arrested in 19 States in 2009, the seizure of more than 175 tons of cocaine and 35 tons of marijuana (approximately $5 billion in illicit drugs) seized by the United States Coast Guard and partner agencies, and the sentencing of a cocaine kingpin to 27 years in Federal prison for conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Figures