Apparently It’s OK to Ignore the Law

As I reported today, the Defense Department has decided to ignore provisions in the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act, signed by President Obama in October 2009, requiring it to stop outsourcing substance abuse treatment to civilian rehab centers and bring treatment back in-house by this October.

The language on substance abuse treatment in the bill is quite clear:

“(4) AVAILABILITY OF SERVICES AND TREATMENT.—The comprehensive plan required by paragraph (1) shall include mechanisms to ensure the availability to members of the Armed Forces and their dependents of a core of evidence-based practices across the spectrum of medical and non-medical services and treatments for substance use disorders, including the reestablishment of regional long-term inpatient substance abuse treatment programs. The Secretary may use contracted services for not longer than three years after the date of the enactment of this Act to perform such inpatient substance abuse treatment until the Department of Defense reestablishes this capability within the military health care system.”

I’m more than baffled as to why Defense has decided to ignore this provision, even though it faces an epidemic of drug and alcohol abuse and addiction: There were 316,248 active-duty troops diagnosed with substance abuse conditions from 2000 through 2011.

I guess Congress does not care about this epidemic, as I have not received any reply to queries on this subject sent over the past few weeks to both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees and numerous members of both committees.

Or maybe they’re preoccupied with Job No. 1 -- running for re-election.