The problem is that a lot of veterans are turning to illegal drugs to cope with their PTSD and the demons in their head from what they saw and experienced down range.
I'm guessing that's what was going on with this kid. For whatever reason he either chose not to get help at the VA that could have prevented all of this IMHO.
That's a whole other issue... The VA can help, but just in my general observations, the VA is part of the problem rather than the solution. A lot of times when the local homeless get arrested, they don't have much on them, but they usually have their meds from the VA. Some of these guys will be on 15, 16 different medications... and as a general observation (I'm no doctor obviously).. they might need one or two.
Example, as this is probably one of the more common ones I see and have tracked all this nonsense down on nights of boredom... A guy has high blood pressure
The VA doc gives him Lisinopril
Then they complain of dizziness, so they usually give them Meclazine or Promethazine
Then Meclazine causes them to have a dry mouth...
They then give them Evoxac, which then causes loss of appetite..... so they give them something for that..
And it just keeps going and going... When if a doctor with some sense had looked at this from the beginning.. gave the guy something for dizziness and said.. "You're going to have to drink a lot of water because this will make you thirsty"... it could have stopped right there. Like I said, 15, 16 different drugs is very very common with those guys. And that's just the ones w/ basic problems like diabetes and high blood pressure.. don't even get me started on the ones getting their psych drugs at the VA.. it's the same thing.
When you add in psych problems and other issues permeate's almost all of these guys who are homeless... rampant drug use, alcohol abuse, then the VA is drugging them up like there's no tomorrow... It's amazing they live through the weekend, let alone months or even years on the street.
I'm not saying I have the answers, and I completely recognize there's a problem... but I don't think the VA is the answer... I think we really need to get back to asylum type housing and involuntary holds for these folks, rather than trying to constantly treat them on an outpatient basis (which is essentially what the VA does)