The Stark Truth About Drugged Warriors

I've reported on the problems with overuse of prescription drugs by the Defense Department in our Broken Warrior series, which started in January. On Tuesday, the House Appropriations Committee got to the root of the problem.

Buried deep on page 277 of its 349 page report on the 2012 Defense budget bill, the Committee said "The upward trend in prescription drug abuse is, first and foremost, a direct consequence of the extraordinary burdens placed upon the force under the high operations tempo of the last decade."

How long can this go on?