As per a new law, the Department of Defense will begin tracking overdoses within the United States military in 2024 and begin to provide naloxone to service members beginning in 2025. 

Military overdose deaths have historically not been systematically tracked until the release of a report by Rolling Stone in 2022 detailing the steep rise in overdose deaths at Fort Bragg, which has since been renamed to Fort Liberty. The report detailed the shocking increase in deaths from fentanyl, counterfeit prescription pills laced with fentanyl and deaths in otherwise healthy young men from causes typically sustained from long-term drug use that were not labeled as overdoses.

In general, Rolling Stone described shoddy record-keeping and experienced a general lack of transparency from the brass at Fort Liberty regarding drug use, drug-related crimes or overdose by military members. Of the 109 deaths that occurred at Fort Liberty between 2020 and 2021, at least 14 soldiers died directly from overdose, though that number is likely higher if you count deaths from drug-related causes, 21 by Rolling Stone’s count, making accidental overdose the leading cause of death at Fort Liberty behind suicide which claimed the lives of 41 soldiers in the same time period. 

After the Rolling Stone report, pressure built on Congress to do something about the issue and Senator Edward Markey (D-Mass.) along with other congressmen began to push the Pentagon for increased transparency. This request led to an admission by the Pentagon that fentanyl-related deaths roughly doubled among military members between 2017 and 2021, much like the rest of the country experienced. According to a Military.com report, 330 service members died from drug overdose between 2017 and 2022, and 15,000 soldiers experienced non-fatal overdoses in the same time frame. 

“Real security means guaranteeing that members of the military and their families can get resources and life-saving treatment necessary to stop the overdose crisis in its tracks,” Senator Markey said in a statement to Military.com.

The law requiring overdose tracking and NARCAN distribution was signed by President Biden in December of 2022 and goes into effect in 2024. According to Military.com, the Department of Defense will be required to submit an annual report on overdose deaths, overdose locations, demographics, whether the service member had previously sought mental health treatment, or if they’d previously been prescribed opioids, benzodiazepines or stimulants.

“It’s really just smart public health,” said Professor Alex Bennett to Military.com. Bennett serves as the director of New York University’s Opioid Overdose Prevention Program. “There’s really a lot of drug naivete amongst military personnel,” Bennett said.

Part of the issue, as is the same with the civilian population, is that fentanyl is often used to make “pressed pills” or fake prescription pills designed to look like pharmaceutical painkillers or benzodiazepines which are often poorly dosed, causing people to unwittingly ingest a lethal dose of fentanyl. The Drug Enforcement Administration has estimated that about 70% of fake prescription pills contain a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl. 

“We’ve been working with a lot of veterans who use substances while they’re in the military. Transparency with data tracking like the kind the military is set to begin doing is a step in the right direction,” Bennett said. “Closing your eyes to drug problems doesn’t solve anything,” Bennett said. “It just makes things worse.”

Carole De Nola, whose 23-year-old child died of an overdose while stationed at Fort Liberty, told Military.com that drug education is especially needed among military members as the new law does not require the military to educate service members on the dangers of fentanyl.

“We should be dealing with this before a service member’s about to overdose,” De Nola said. 

It was not immediately clear how the military would be distributing naloxone, commonly known as NARCAN, which is a life-saving medication that can halt an opioid overdose in its tracks. Many NARCAN distribution programs have been established at the level of local cities and townships but nothing has been established federally, or by military leadership until the new law was passed. The new law requires that naloxone be made available to all troops by the year 2025. The law also requires all the naloxone distributed by tracked, which could discourage some military members from seeking it out. 

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An undercover investigation in Virginia ended with the arrest of an off-duty Pentagon police officer by the Arlington County Police Department last Friday.

The ACPD issued a press release on Halloween which said their detectives had been investigating Welch for possibly selling drugs based on evidence for which they did not offer specifics. The investigation is still active so it’s not uncommon for law enforcement agencies of any kind to keep information limited until the investigation is complete. Thus, not much detail was offered in general about this case other than the following:

“He was taken into custody on the afternoon of October 28 in the 1300 block of S. Scott Street (Arlington, VA) after detectives observed him purchase narcotics for distribution. A firearm was recovered at the scene. A search warrant was subsequently executed at the suspect’s residence in Alexandria which resulted in the recovery of additional quantities of narcotics and firearms. As a result, City of Alexandria Police charged Welch with Possession with Intent to Distribute Controlled Substance (x2) and Possession with Intent to Distribute Controlled Substance while Armed,” – Arlington County Police Department.

Those charges indicate Welch was arrested with anywhere from 2.5 to five kilos of cocaine. Naturally, I emailed the Pentagon to ask them how in the Sam Hell an officer of theirs managed to get his hands on that much coke when my guy has been dry for weeks. They sent me the following statement:

“The Pentagon Force Protection Agency is aware that an off-duty Pentagon Police Officer was arrested by the Arlington County Police Department on October 28, 2022. The officer was placed on administrative leave.”

I asked if this was the first time Welch had been reprimanded for conduct in or outside of the workplace.

“We don’t comment on individual personnel matters,” said Jacqueline Yost, director of the corporate communications office at the Pentagon Force Protection Agency.

Welch was arrested at least once prior in Arlington County as well. Court records show Welch pleaded guilty to charges of destruction of property of value greater than $1,000 as well as disorderly conduct. A separate charge of failure to pay for a rental vehicle or animal was also entered but no other information was immediately available. I did a cursory search of court records for neighboring Virginia counties and a search of Washington D.C. court records and found no other entries for an Eric Michael Welch. 

When asked if they were aware if Welch has a prior criminal history, or if it’s common to allow police officers to work with criminal records, the Pentagon did not wish to comment. 

As of Wednesday morning, an inmate query with the Arlington County Detention Facility showed Welch was still incarcerated and being held without bond. 

Interestingly enough, Welch maintained a moderately active Instagram presence dedicated to bodybuilding and fitness of all things prior to being arrested. His handle is @welch_fit but, in the interest of complete transparency, I’m saying that based on basic image and name comparison as I could not verify directly with Welch that it was the same guy. 

He is downright ripped, like eats a bowl of nails for breakfast ripped, and lists a company called MSF Supplements as a sponsor in his Instagram bio. I reached out to them to see if Welch is still a sponsored athlete or if they were aware of the charges and they did not get back to me in time for publication. 

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