Happy pills and guns are a bad mix.

Ask any high school shooter.

Oh yes, they commit suicide.

WELL READ THE GODDAMN WARNING LABEL ON THE GODDAMN BOTTLE OF PILLS, FOOL!

Separate a group of patients in the stress unit into two subgroups with equal levels of exposure to combat and severity of PTSD.

Let the members of one subgroup use all the weed they want. Urine test the others rigorously to make sure none of them use pot at all.

Then let the data speak for themselves. We'll see whether there's any truth behind the 5,000 year old tradition among the soldiers of the world that cannabis can heal the mental illness caused by war.

This is supposed to be a pro-science administration, right?

There's a debate going on right now about veterans' access to medical marijuana.

This debate can be settled with science.

If this is REALLY a pro-science administration, then let's settle that debate right now -- since so many lives are at stake right now.

Please give us the RATE of soldiers who commit suicide and compare that to the general population. Honestly, 140 suicides in a 1.5 million man army doesn't seem like a lot. That's about 15 per 100,000. The suicide rate for men generally hovers around 17 per 100,000. So is there even really any problem or is the military just a reflection of the general populous?

Obama is chanting voodoo and making our soldiers kill themselves!

I served one tour in Viet Nam.I cannot imagine the horror of fighting in places like Iraq and Afghanistan over and over again.Back in the day you joined the National Guard or the Reserves to avoid Viet Nam,a la George W. Bush.You stayed home filled sandbags,controlled riots and cleaned up after tonadoes.Now you are quite liable to be sent to Iraq or Afghanistan more than once. You cannot expect people to go into those situations and come back like nothing happened.If we are going to do this stuff we need a bigger,better prepared military.The only fair way to do it is to bring back the draft otherwise only the foolhardy,the adventurous,and the directionless will enlist.Patriotism is probably in there somewhere,but in my humble,unsubstantiated opinion,it's not a big draw.The services certainly don't use it as a recruiting point.So when we begin to draft our sons and daughters from ages 18 to 26 as during 'Nam times,or up to 40 as in WWII,maybe we will pay more attention to what is worth fighting for.We need to find other solutions than throwing our youth into these pits.Our troops would probably do better if they were trained in the languages and cultures of their allies and enemies,were rotated in and out more quickly and had professional support.Bush,Cheney and Rumsfeld,not a lick of combat experience between them,wanted to do it on the cheap.Well this,Abu Ghareb,and a bitter Muslim world is what you get.

but the comparable demographic in civvie land is not 'men' but people in good health, employed, and youngish. that group likes to live, as a general rule.

the problem may be that humans sicken if asked to kill strangers for no visible cause, beyond some politician's command. not all, of course, some thrive on being let off the leash. but those that look at ragheads and see people are likely to get depressed at turning people into dog food.

which is a good argument for not fighting wars for the fun of it, as seems to be the case in afpakiraqistan. i wonder if americans will ever grow up and choose peace.

ChilliDogg has more than a point. He/She has nailed the issue here. There does not appear to be any significant difference between military suicide rates and non-military suicide rates, at least as far as I can see from suicide data up through a few years ago.

http://www.suicide.org/suicide-statistics.html

There's plenty of demographic info here. I'm sure there's some more recent statistics around somewhere, but there isn't a shred of evidence in this article that military suicides are higher than civilian suicides.

In fact, on the contrary, we know that 2009 has not had more intense fighting than previous years, so if the numbers have gone up in 2009 it seems if anything to suggest that suicides aren't a direct result of combat stress.

Basically, as ChilliDogg pointed out if all you have is raw numbers, you've got nothing. You can make up whatever theory you like and it's going to be bunk.

Mr Benjamin, this is journalism 101.

Reading these comments is really appalling. People are killing themselves and others and all the commenters seem to be doing is criticizing the data or trying to argue that maybe it really isn't that bad, maybe the suicide rate in the military is the same as the general population, maybe if soldiers weren't given antidepressants (i.e "happy pills" to those who have never needed them). Are you kidding? Do you really think that comparing military statistics about suicide with those of the general population proves anything but that both the military and the US health system fail to give the psychiatric care people need? Maybe the stigma of seeking treatment in the military is on par with that found in the general population (Mr. "Happy Pills"). Instead of belittling the reporting on this issue why not think about what needs to change amongst both the military and civilian population of the United States. We just had a vote on mental health parity in employer-provided medical plans, but it won't go into effect for five years, so people with depression and any other mental illness have their treatment options and duration limited in a way someone with diabetes would not. The stigma about those who need antidepressants (which do not make you happy, they help you be normal) as weaklings dropping "happy pills" is in both military and particularly in civilian life (thank you Tom Cruise).

The callous arrogance behind the comments here is just more evidence of the stigma against mental health issues. Every suicide is one too many, but when treatment is denied, diagnoses are made based on expediency and not medical evidence, those seeking treatment or under treatment using medication are ridiculed, quibbling over numbers is callous and ignores the real issue.

Those of us dealing with mental illness confront this type of disdain everyday. I hope none of you ever have PTSD or Depression and have to know how it feels to read comments like yours.