helping_hand

Clearly you read things into my short statements that are not true.... Have I blamed DND? No... Have I said anything other than he is a victim of drug addiction? No... Using drugs is, yes, a personal choice. However, becoming an addict is not. I have never said he made the right choice. I have never defended his drug use. I do however KNOW first hand what the goings on have been in his situation. I know that he spent 27 days in Edmonton in lockup, and as far as his treatment or rehab went.... Would you consider polishing brass treatment? When he walked out the doors after 27 days, he had not used any drugs the entire time. The military had dried him out, but they had offered no treatment at all. So quick to jump to conclusions you are... Yet, when he was AWOL, when all this went down, I was the person who called the MP's and told them where he was. I can live with him hating me for the rest of my life for that if it means he will live. Letting him run himself into the ground possibly 6ft under, I could not live with that. I have called him on his bullshit junkie explanations more than once. I know what he did and didn't see while serving oversea's. I need not have to explain what is and isn't accurate in the media, we all know that the media isn't always accurate. On kicking him out of the forces... Hell yeah. He ruined his career, he knows it, I know it, and you all know it. His fault for doing wrong. Never, have I said he shouldn't be kicked out. As for DND paying for his rehab... Let me know when that happens... What country do you live in? I live in Canada, we have health care here for free! Who pays it? The government.... Who pays DND? I am not here for a pissing contest, I belive in our military, I come from a military family with many many years of service. I was here to objectively discuss these matters.

I see... Rehab, after they are found guilty... Hmmmm.. So when they go to trial ( maybe a year from now ), they may actually have survived there drug addiction THAT MUCH longer... Horseshite!! Are you kidding me? I know one of the accused, and he is getting treatment, ( on his own ). The military has made no real effort to treat him, don't even start me on MIR. Drug addiction is vile, it takes over, you lose control. I wouldn't want a strung out junkie covering my ass either. However, I wouldn't condem that person(s) forever either. Stop preaching about what good the army is doing for these guys when you have absolutley no clue. They have done little to nothing for them thus far... Other than charge them and a few weekends in Detention barracks.

You are obviously a very angry induvidual...

I can't say for sure.... I wasn't there to see it... That article you are referring to may in fact make reference to PTSD treatment, but as to whether or not the diagnosis has been made by a professional is questionable. Addicts will use anything they can get their hands on to get their fix. I would imagine finding drugs of some sort oversea's wasn't out of the question.

I can say that in our younger days, I do remember that we did smoke pot on occasion. I wouldn't have called him an addict back in those days. Maybe a recreational user of marijuana, nothing more. His addiction to stronger drugs (ie- opiates) has been something that has developed in the past year or so, to the best of my knowledge. All during his carreer in the military. It is a hard thing for any friend to have to witness. While my friend still looks the same, talks the same, and walks the same, he is merely a shell of who he was. This type of an addiction drives a person into doing things that are unthinkable to the average person. I saw him for the first time in almost 10yrs just the other night when I picked him up in Edmonton on base and drove him to the airport to return to Nb. We have maintained our friendship from opposite ends of our country. Now... Sadly, after being in cells for 27 days and drying out, he has returned to Nb and gone missing yet again with not a word to his family or friends. None of us can reach him. I would like to belive that he will be found shortly, only to be locked up again without a doubt, but this time, I hope that they will actually treat the addiction, not just lock him up again. Unfourtunately all the information I really have for what the military has done for him so far, is from him, the addict. You can't trust a word they say. He reamins in all of our thoughts and prayers and if by some chance he is reading this.... I plead with you man, turn yourself in, get the help you need, we all love you.

I joined this forum because I am in fact friends with one of the accused. I have been his friend for some 17yrs. He is an addict. Having close to the military all of my life I can tell you that as far as military organizations around the world, the Canadian forces does have one of the best PTSD programs. I don't know that any of the accused have been diagnosed with PTSD at this point yet. I do not condone any of their actions, but I do hope that our military will offer them the help that they need to overcome their addictions.

I would hope that the military would provide treatment for the sellers too. Drug addiction takes over, when these drugs are in control, a person will do what you never would have expected them to ever do, the drugs are in control.

Whatever happened to the old saying of, "Innocent until proven guilty"?