The Drugs Trap: Addicted in Afghanistan

Afghanistan is doing what it has done well for so long – seducing invading forces by the lure of drugs and lingering addiction. In November last year, there were reports from the New Freedom of Information showing how hundreds of soldiers, sailors and airmen of the Australian forces have been engaged with the use of various illegal drugs. Young Diggers Australia president John Jarrett made the assertion that, ‘Soldiers (are) going over there, from NSW, healthy and normal, and coming back with all kinds of addictions’ (Sunday Mail, Nov 22, 2009).

The reports have been coming in regularly about how Australian soldiers are suffering from various levels of combat stress, a condition that makes the taking of drugs an appealing option.

The latest revelation about an Australian commando’s possible overdose after a function may send shivers down the military establishment, but it can hardly be deemed unusual. All of Australia’s 300 special forces must now undertake testing, and the results may well be grim. Such personnel have created something of a myth amongst their own kind, staying the course when other conventional forces might not have managed.

The head of the Australian Defence Force Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston is urging caution in assessing the matter. ‘Because of the stresses of the operation they were on, the commanding officer authorised a small function where alcohol was consumed. That was the extent of it’ (The Age, Jun 3).

The Australian Defence Association executive director Neil James is also cordoning off the incident quickly. While Afghanistan might well be ‘awash’ with drugs, the opportunities for soldiers to obtain them were few, given the limited contact with local people. ‘If you are getting your quotient of excitement through your job, then you don’t really need to get it chemically.’ The world of fighting is evidently often one of illusion.

The sad fact of the matter is that such matters are never ‘the extent’ the establishment fighting wars would expect. Such revelations are hardly new. The Soviet forces fell for the use of heroine and duly spread its use on their return.

What remains to be seen is how Australian forces will react to this discovery. The first reactions have been ones of denial and minimisation – ‘we don’t have a problem’ seems to be the official line. Will the commando be pilloried for his dabbling in this world of dangerous relief? Will compassion prevail? War has a habit of not discriminating in terms of the victims it produces.

Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: bkampmark@gmail.com

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