Pentagon transports tons of controlled narcotics to US Army – papers
SOFIA ($1=1.97 Bulgarian Levs) — Bulgarian investigative journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva shed light on the delivery of 47 tons of controlled drugs to the American military worldwide. In her new investigation, Gaytandzhieva claims that the Pentagon is transporting the controlled drugs. Federal Register papers back up her claims.
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Over 47 tons of controlled drug shipments are on the delivery schedule. The period is 2018-2023. The bases are military, American, and scattered all over the world. USTRANSCOM has contracts with 14 airlines to carry military cargo, including “sensitive” cargo.
“The estimated amount for Romania alone is 10 tons of controlled drugs, Kosovo – 5 tons, Estonia – 2 tons, while the estimated supply of controlled drugs for the other destinations is in a significantly smaller amount – 898 kg on a base [the quantities specified in the document are measured in US lbs, 1 lbs equals 0.453592 kg],” wrote Gaytandzhieva.
According to the papers
According to the documents, deliveries are scheduled as follows: for Kosovo 11,117 pounds [2018-2023] or 5,042 kg, for Romania 21,607 pounds [2018-2023] or 9,800 kg, for Malatya 2,803 pounds [2018-2023] or 1,271 kg , for Erbil 1,457 lbs [2018-2023] or 660 kg, for Estonia 4,516 lbs [2018-2023] or 2,048 kg. The total amount of controlled drugs for delivery is 47,560 kg, the journalist says in his report.
Delivery of amphetamines
Other documents reveal that the US Department of Defense supplied amphetamines. The contract is worth $23 million. The period is 2020 to 2025. According to the contract with the military, 15.6 million amphetamine tablets are used annually.
The US Food and Drug Administration’s Adverse Event Reporting System [FAER] says there are thousands of reports of “adverse events” after using amphetamine. It is about exactly 6145 cases from 1994 to the end of March 2020. Of these, 202 cases are fatal, and 3,251 falls under the “serious” classification. “Drug addiction and overprescribing is a major problem in the US military,” Gaytandzhieva wrote.
Amphetamine is banned for use in the US military, Gaytandzhieva says. However, it is clear from the documents that this restriction is being violated. This drug is used to treat attention deficit disorder [ADD] and narcolepsy.
BulgarianMilitary.com publishes verbatim the following text of Gaytandzhieva, published in the Bulgarian online portal Obektivno.bg [objectively in English].
Lack of control
A recently released audit by the Defense Department’s inspector general found a lack of oversight of opioid prescribing in the U.S. military. The audit states:
“Through examination of patient records, we identified examples of beneficiaries at the three military treatment facilities we reviewed who may have been prescribed too many opioids from 2015 to 2017. For example, a beneficiary received an average of 450 MME per day [morphine] for 16 months, which is five times the recommended maximum dose of 90 MME, which chronic pain patients should avoid.”
Another 2020 audit by the Pentagon’s inspector general, the Pharmaceutical Management Audit in Support of the U.S. Central Command Area of Responsibility, found that the Department of Defense does not control how controlled drugs are stored and used. Inspectors visited eight medical facilities, four medical logistics facilities, the US Army Medical Materiel Center-Southwest Asia [USAMMC-SWA], and three USAMMC-SWA forward logistics centers located in Qatar, Kuwait, and Afghanistan.
According to the audit, as a result of the accountability and security deficiencies identified at the medical facilities, medical logistics facilities, USAMMC-SWA warehouse, and USAMMC-SWA logistics centers, controlled drugs at these locations are potentially subject to lose, theft, and illicit use.
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