The use of drugs during the Vietnam war was unethical since it let to an upsurge in the use of illicit substances. According to Windle (2016), there was an increase in the usage of heroin among the troops which later spread to the community. Additionally, even after the military personnel retired and became civilians, the use of drugs continued due to the addiction that had been acquired earlier (Golub and Bennet, 2013). The use of drugs led to various negative consequences to many of the veterans after the war.
One of the adverse effects that indicates that the utilization of pharmacological treatment was unethical was the increased infection of HCV (Heslin, Guerrero, Mitchell, Afable, and Dobalian, 2013). The rise in hepatitis infections led to the deterioration of health for the military personnel leading to a decline in the level of productivity. Another challenge associated with substance abuse during the Vietnam war was an upsurge in mental illness cases (Heslin et al., 2013). Notably, some of the veterans were rendered homeless since they were attached to the drugs and, therefore, were not capable of handling their finances (Heslin et al., 2013).
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It is evident that the use of the treatments led psychological trauma after the war. Adams et al (2013) carried out a research to determine the level of trauma among the Vietnam war veterans, and it was observed that the number of cases had increased. The psychological trauma was caused by the increased usage of alcohol since it was the cheaper alternative compared to the high-end substances (Adams et al. 2013). It is also evident that the measures put in place by the American government were not successful in managing the reliance on drug abuse as evidenced by the poor living conditions of the veterans (Golub and Bennett, 2013).
References
Adams R.S, Larson M.J, Corrigan J.D, Ritter G.A, Williams T.V. (2013). Traumatic brain injury
among active duty military personnel and negative drinking-related consequences . Substance Use and Misuse. 2013 This Issue.
Golub, A., and Bennett, A.S. (2013). Introduction to the Special Issue: Drugs, Wars, Military
Personnel, and Veterans. doi:10.3109/10826084.2013.816859.
Heslin K.C., Guerrero E, Mitchell M.N., Afable M, Dobalian A. (2013). Explaining differences
in hepatitis C between U.S . veterans and non-veterans in treatment for substance abuse: Results from a regression decomposition. Substance Use and Misuse. 2013 This Issue.
Windle, J. (2016). A Slow March from Social Evil to Harm Reduction: Drugs and Drug Policy in
Vietnam. Retrieved 16 th June, 2018 from
https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/WindleVietnam-final.pdf
