HUFFINGTON
09.22.13
INVISIBLE CASUALTIES
rehab is “typical,” and patients
can choose to participate in outpatient care while they wait.
“However, patients cannot be
compelled to participate in this
care, particularly since care is
ineffective without the patient’s
cooperation in their [sic] recovery,” the Navy said.
He was not tested for drug use
during that period because “such
testing cannot be employed if the
patient is not complying with
their [sic] treatment plan.”
In other words, a potentially
suicidal drug addict on active
military duty cannot be asked
to submit to a urinalysis if he is
using drugs.
Whatever happened in the Navy’s five-week drug abuse rehab
program — and the Navy would
not release those records — it
didn’t take. Later that fall, Elliott came back from deployment
and was disappointed to find
that Joshua had taken up drugs
again after his treatment. “I knew
he was still using,” Elliott said.
“I tried reaching out to him and
hanging out as much as possible,
but he didn’t want to go out and
do things. He was always by him-
“Here he’s leaving his
wife and daughter, family
— all the people he
loves the most, after his
mom’s memorial service,
going back to a job he
hates, living on a couch in
someone’s house.”
self, he just wanted to stay home.”
Elliott remembers rushing Joshua to an emergency room several
times because he was suffering
withdrawal symptoms when his
supply ran out. Finally, he said, he
confronted the emergency room
staff, telling them Joshua had a
severe drug addiction.
Nothing, he said, was done.
“How did that information not get
passed on, that he was in the ER
because he’s having withdrawal
from opiates and he’s active duty?
There should be no ifs, ands or
buts about this — the guy has a
drug problem. We need to take
care of this,” he said.
At some point that fall and winter, Joshua started using heroin.
“I thought rehab would take
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