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So Ahmed Qasim pops a small clean tablet called Artane to hinder him through his duties.

“For me, it helps me to get the work at jobs done,” he said. “I can’t bear acting without taking Artane. It makes me happy and high, but I still can control myself.”

The abuse of usage drugs, widely available in Iraq on the inky market and end private pharmacies, has significantly increased since 2003, doctors and other hale condition specialists say, nourished by the stresses of the war and the lack of tight government regulation.

Dealers do a brisk business in tranquilizers, painkillers and other drugs, specialists say, and drug abuse is a problem in the prisons and among Iraqis who acquire a livelihood in indigent neighborhoods or who are unemployed.

But in recent years, Iraqi soldiers and police officers have also turned to drugs to ease the stresses of their jobs. In particular, they are abusing Artane, a medication that is used to treat Parkinson’s disease and that can have euphoric effects when used in high doses.

“They rely upon that this Artane allows them to become courageous, to become brave,” said one doctor, who spoke put on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the issue.

“They take it with equal reason that there is no anxiety, no apprehend,” he said, “so they can impair down doors and note houses by no shame.”

No clear evidence exists that the misuse of prescription drugs has a indicative issue on how soldiers and police officers achieve their duties. Nor are any figures available put on how widespread drug abuse is in the security forces or whether most of those who use the drugs do so quotidian.

But Qasim, 26, estimated that one out of three soldiers in his army unit take Artane or other drugs while on what one is bound. Jalal Ammar, 45, some Iraqi police officer, reported “probably 30 percent” of the police officers he worked with used Artane and other medications.

Amir al-Haidari, the manager of drug-addiction programs for the Ministry of Health of Iraq, said pure spirit abuse was once a bigger problem than prescription-drug abuse, “but after the American infringement of Iraq, alcohol became limited because of the security plight and religious restraints.”

Now, he said, “the long duties, the suicide attacks and the killing are whole factors that drive the security-forces members toward Artane and other drugs.”

Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/iraq/2008544354_iraq21.html?syndication=rss