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Army Reviews Controversial Drug After Afghan Massacre
Hugh Pickens writes "Time Magazine reports that after the massacre in which Staff Sgt. Robert Bales allegedly killed 17 civilians in Afghanistan, the Pentagon has ordered an urgent review of the use of the anti-malarial drug mefloquine, also known as Lariam, known to have severe psychiatric side effects including psychotic behavior, paranoia and hallucinations. 'One obvious question to consider is whether he was on mefloquine (Lariam), an anti-malarial medication,' writes Elspeth Cameron Ritchie in Time. 'This medication has been increasingly associated with neuropsychiatric side effects, including depression, psychosis, and suicidal ideation.' The drug has been implicated in numerous suicides and homicides, including deaths in the U.S. military. For years the military used the weekly pill to help prevent malaria among deployed troops, however in 2009 the U.S. Army nearly dropped use of mefloquine entirely because of the dangers, using it only in limited circumstances, including sometimes in Afghanistan. Army and Pentagon officials would not say whether Bales took the drug, citing privacy rules. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Jonathan Woodson has ordered a new, urgent review to make sure that troops were not getting the drug inappropriately. 'Some deployed service members may be prescribed mefloquine (PDF) for malaria prophylaxis without appropriate documentation in their medical records and without proper screening for contraindications,' the order says. It notes that this review must include troops at 'deployed locations.'"
Obviously it's pure speculation, but I have a hard time believing this would mitigate any punishment Bales receives. It would be a nightmare of the most extreme order for the military should Bales be exculpated, even in the most limited sense. The Afghans have been screaming for him to be tried under Afghan law. It would be hard enough to punishment short of the death penalty to the Afghan public, much less an outcome that ends with him in psychiatric care first. This is just one more massive headache in a case that can't be over for the Pentagon fast enough.
In the mean time, expect relations to continue to deteriorate between Afghan security forces and ISAF troops. There is real danger of this review fueling conspiracy theories and sparking further knife-in-the-back attacks on ISAF troops like we've already seen.
It increasingly seems that no one is winning from this war. Afghan civilians have had any sense that westerners provide safety shattered. Westerners trust their Afghan counterparts even less. And yet most of Afghan development depends on the industry that supports the international presence there, which a hasty pull-out would destroy. What's the least bad option here?
I got a catholic block.
Army coverup?
Army coverup.
So I guess chemistry and biology aren't technologies anymore...
What's that? Drugged out solders killing civilians? Yawn. Wake me when there's news about how Apple or Microsoft is bad and Linux is good.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
I can attest to this drugs potency, I've used it on two instances, and on one I suffered mightily the day and night after I took my weekly dose. Another of my friends was hospitalized after a psychotic episode on this drug. A girl I used to date used this drug for 2+ years during a posting to Sierra Leone in the military, apparently without any long term effect...but well beyond any duration it had been certified and tested for...however the flip side is that the initial brigade that was sent to Sierra Leone in a hurry were not on an anti-malarial and a large number came down with serious Malaria. Luckily there are much better alternatives in 2012, and I think it's somewhat weak to see this in the press...if it's being doled out to troops in this environment still then that is wrong and someone should get on it now, but this tabloid journalism and new culture of Mil/Gov leaks to the worthless press is ridiculous. Solve the friggin' problem, don't play some political game of buck passing in the headlines
Having known someone who suffered from Lariam induced psychosis some years ago, I find it shocking beyond belief that they would give this stuff to men with guns.
Whether Bales was suffering from such psychosis at the time should be considered secondary - the US military was giving its soldiers a drug that can lead to violent psychotic episodes. The person who made that decision needs to be escorted to the cell adjoining Bales'.
No one is saying he isn't responsible for his actions. They're going to review the use of the drug as a whole, and it's about time. Everyone I know who's gone (I'm a defense contractor, and many of my coworkers have gone to AFG) have had bad reactions to the drug and stopped taking it. Typical stories include violent horrible dreams every night until they stop taking it. Do you think they SHOULDN'T review the use of the drug, given its known side effects?
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
It was SVU - and I swear I thought this story was a parody recap of that. Right down to it being an anti-malaria drug.
Everyone knows that if you can not use it to build a robot it isn't technology.
Dude you better check yourself in.
You've taken this drug, are on /. and believe you have wife. You even have conversations with this 'wife'.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
How are we supposed to be hunted down and killed by T-800s without chemistry and biology? Research into these fields is vital.
Oh, wait...
Blank until
What's that? Drugged out solders killing civilians? Yawn. Wake me when there's news about how Apple or Microsoft is bad and Linux is good.
I have it on good authority that researchers in the labs that developed this drug were using Windows on some of their computers!
Caspian Sea oil and gas unrecovered reserves are enormous, valued at over $10 trillion. Iran is currently a transit country for this, but the aim is to use Afghanistan instead. The Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline is a big part of this. Plans for an Afghan pipeline have been in the making for a long time, U.S. Congress testimony in 1998:
Mr. MARESCA. It's not going to be built until there is a single Afghan Government. That's the simple answer. We would not want to be in the situation where we became the target of the other faction. In any case, because of the financing situation, credits are not going to be available until there is a recognized government of Afghanistan.
Mr. BEREUTER. So you are not making any suggestions about the prospects of that or timing of that. It's just you are not going to move or it's not going to be moved from another source until that happens. That would be your judgment?
Mr. MARESCA. That's my judgment. We do of course follow very closely the negotiations which have been going on. We are hopeful that they will lead somewhere. All wars end. I think that's a universal rule. So one of these days this war too will end. Then I believe the pipeline will be secure.
That war (officially) ended thanks to the U.S. military, Afghanistan was (officially) unified under the Karzai government, and in 2002 Karzai signed the TAPI pipeline deal. Very fast given the complexity of such a deal. The U.S. has invested $0.5 trillion in the Afghan War so far, that's quite a lot just to bring bin Laden to justice. That $0.5 trillion didn't magically disappear - it was given to corporations which have profited handsomely from this war. Some stand to profit even more in the future from the ability to export Caspian Sea oil and gas through Afghanistan. And it also isolates Iran further.
Is it all a coincidence? It does seem awfully convenient...
Actually, my wife has just said to me that paracetamol has more documented cases of causing psychosis as a side effect than Lariam...
Other than pointing out that paracetamol also has potential for psychosis, what does this tell you? Paracetamol is vastly more widely used than Mefloquine. Even if the risk from paracetamol was only 1% of that from mefloquine, you could still see more documented cases of psychosis.