4 - The Black Vault

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THE BDM CORPORATION
to the troops to assist them
in reducing stress and combat fatigue.
Although phenothiazine is not a barbiturate, its effects are very similar
and many of the soldiers used it to produce "lows," even though Piany of
these users were not subject to combat stress or hazardous duty. 32/
Another report states that marijuana cigarettes were selling for twenty
cents each in Saigon and one dollar each in Da Nang; opium was one dollar
per injection and morphine, five dollars per vial. 33/ These price levels
were subject to simple supply and demand economics and increased precipitously
in proportion to increased demand.
The most certain statement that can ba made regarding drug prevalence
in Vietnam is that if such depressants and stimulants as alcohoi,
nicotine and caffeine are also included together with illicit and prescribed
drugs, virtually the entire US military population used one or more
drugs at some time.
Beyond that, firm statistics are hard to come by. Most estimates
are based on the numbers of those apprehended or requesting treatment, or
on smallI study samples. There have been no adequate studies on alcohol,
nicotine or caffeine abuse in Vietnam, all of which could have deleterious
--ffects on combat performance. However, some general trends can be
observea with fair certainty, and even though conservatively stated they
are alarming enough.
As one source notes,
To take the lowest estimate of identified drug users -
that is, 2 percent of one million men - then approximately
20,000 soldiers at this date have some d~gree of
psychological or physiological drug dependency. Twenty
thousand soldiers equals the base population of Ft.
Belvoir. It is equivalert to the number of addicts
reported today in Washington, D.C. It is a little less
than one-half the number of men killed during the
10-year involvetment in Indochina. The figure does not
include men released from the arnmy prior to June 1971,
those who served when drug use was increasing two-,
three-, and four-fold each year. 34/
VA estimates of drug abuse etch an even deeper picture. The
50,000 to 140,000 range estimated earlier suggests that a group in American
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