Past Contest Entries

Substance Abuse in the Military

Provide names of other journalists involved.

Dr. Jonathan LaPook, Amy Birnbaum, Kevin Finnegan

List date(s) this work was published or aired.

9/17/2012

Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.

On the day the Institute of Medicine released a critical report on the way the military handles substance abuse issues, Dr. Jon LaPook sat down with Michael Long, a wounded Iraq war veteran who developed an addiction to pain medication that led to a dishonorable discharge. Lt. David Fridovich, who struggled with a drug dependency during his long service, calls substance abuse one of the main wounds of war.

Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?

Institute of Medicine report, journal Military Medicine, documents accessed from James McDonough, homefromthewars.com

Explain types of human sources used.

Interviews with numerous substance abuse experts, Samaritan Village, Lt. David Fridovich, Dr. Charles O’Brien, lead author of the IOM report.

Results:

n/a

Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.

n/a

Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.

. The most important part of the story was to reach out to veterans to allow them to describe the difficulty obtaining up to date treatment while in service.

Place:

No Award

Year:

  • 2012

Category:

  • Public Health (large)

Affiliation:

CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley

Reporter:

Amy Birnbaum; Dr. Jonathan LaPook; Kevin Finnegan

Links: