Addiction in construction trades article, wondering how others see the accuracy of the article

It's paywalled.
Fentanyl is the #1 cause of overdose death by a huge margin, and it is not easy to detect. It metabolizes out so quickly.

I notice a lot of the bigger companies are starting to recognise depression and mental illness in construction trades

I've seen listings for years now of construction outfits begging that if you can just show up sober, they'll pay really well.

The first fentanyl addicts and behind the scene users were anesthesiologist, fentanyl has been
around since 1959, fentanyl was used as a pain killer in the operating rooms years ago, the
dosages used were extremely small. Fentanyl, tar heroin, along with P2P meth became very
popular around 2014. The mexican drug cartels took advantage of the nation of prescription
drug users built on oxycodone by Purdue pharmacy. The buyer was already there-the cartels
just took over where oxycodone left off. The P2P meth is not the biker meth of the 90's.
extremely cheap to make and about 100 times more powerful. Years ago there were functioning
meth addicts, they could own a home still have a car and some sort of life. P2P came along
and the was functioning meth user was on the street in less than two months. Two hits of P2P
and the user is in a spiraling out of control crash and burn life in very short order. The homless
situation didn't just happen--meth created it, Fact.

I have a different recollection of the homeless part, that dates back to the early 80's when they defunded state mental hospitals all over the country but namely in California and here in Washington. The mentally ill formed the core of the homeless population from the late 80's on. Drug problems are a symptom of self medication. Alcohol is one of them.

But I digress

skyking1 said:

I have a different recollection of the homeless part,

Click to expand...

There has always been homeless-But the main portion, probably 90% of homeless came from
drug use. There just weren't that many mentally disabled turned loose. Very good books for
a read on the drug/homeless issue-{To The Each of Us} another is {Dreamland}. But I know
no one will bother to read because it takes too long and they have better things to do, besides
the news tells them everything they need to know.
*
I typed more than I wanted today.

Didn’t read article/ paywall.

My son frames houses and a lot of the framers are weed smokers and party with harder stuff on the weekends. He's sick of working with them.

I pre-employment drug test and everyone is in a random pool. I get to send myself in for randoms.

The best I had -was a potential employee, get all the way through interview to hiring, and then asked if he "could just work a couple weeks" until he could pass the drug test. Sorry bud, but it don't work like that.

I'll check out your books. My opinion did not come from the media.
My dad's last job was as a special investigator for the DSHS, and his last office was in Steilacoom at Western Washington State hospital, from 1976~85. He observed it as it happened. Those people are long gone now as he is, but it was the beginning of a shift away from caring for the mentally ill.

skyking1 said:

I'll check out your books. My opinion did not come from the media.
My dad's last job was as a special investigator for the DSHS, and his last office was in Steilacoom at Western Washington State hospital, from 1976~85. He observed it as it happened. Those people are long gone now as he is, but it was the beginning of a shift away from caring for the mentally ill.

Click to expand...

Yes it took place, Medical Lake released many on the streets. It was obvious, even little places
like Ellensburg suddenly had it's fair share of mentally disabled. Case in point-There was this guy
that frequented a few taverns, he lived on the street. The owner of a tavern that I use to hang
out at after work saw what he believed was his sister show up meeting him there and giving him
money. His alias was {The Shoe} he would never tie his shoes plus walked on the back of them
because he never put them all the way on, never bothered anyone. I moved to Walla Walla in
96 and who did I see setting at a bus stop bench--{The Shoe}. Many moved this direction because
the weather is less severe in winter. We have our fair share of homeless. The overdoses average
a minimum of three a week here some weekends 4 or 5. You would think after awhile the town
would run out of self induced victims, but it just isn't the case. Tweakers abound, as far as the
work place, a friends son has a construction business plus knows all the other contractors.
All have had issues with workers not passing a drug test, and some were ones you would never
guess.
*
It's a nation wide problem, no town, community is void of the issue. It's just sad. Total ruin
of peoples lives plus their family having to deal with it.

Sorry, I didn't realize it was paywalled or I wouldn't have posted the link/question.

The thing that struck me the most and prompted the question was the statistics they quoted. Construction has about 10 deaths/100,000 workers per year. However, the same group has about 168 overdose deaths/100,000/year. Food industry came in second with 118 deaths/100,000 workers. Data was from 2020, latest available.

young guys making a living wage with enough left over to party, and they run afoul of the epidemic of hidden fentanyl that the pushers use to give their brand an "edge".
That is what is happening. Pushers put the magic powder everywhere for that extra zing that markets their stuff. It has no business in marijuana but it shows up there. It shows up everywhere when you test for it. It takes just a dab to kill somebody.
Why anyone would do drugs in this environment is beyond me.

Construction is hard on the body. You work hard all week and just want to relax and not feel all the aches and pains of the week for a few hours. A little oxi and a beer……. Add in drugs tainted with fentanyl and one Monday morning you don’t show up for life.

The union construction industry here has a well publicized addiction/substance program available for members. I haven’t seen any stats lately but I do know that construction workers are high up in the death count and are most likely to be using alone according to the public health officer.

I think another part of the problem is trades used to recruit the best and brightest now those individuals go else where for the most part trades are left with a very few best and brightest and a whole lot of I need to get by in life people this is not helped by the fact that the millennial gen and after have been medicated by things like aderal from a very young age

Most guys in my age group that got way into drugs were on some type of attention or behavior modifier thru school I remember my older brother would sale his riddlin pills at school to by oxcy and not long later it was meth

I guess the point is most of the guys that would not be affected by drug use have been steered to other career fields by the system leaving the under performers or non conformers to work construction cause the educated society sees that as lower class of work

I like to watch COPS & ON PATROL.. & it irks the livin $hit outta me when they spend their time administering NARCAN.!! over and over again, call after call.!!
I saw 1 episode where they said they had to revive one guy TWICE in the same day.!!
What a waste of time and resources.!!

I live in a small town...400 people, very rural.
Guy across the street had substance abuse issues for years. Heroin got him, his hot little supplier girl went 3-4 months later, no narcan for her that time.
The crap is everywhere......

Ed

Fentanyl is still very effective when Dr's. are administering it. The doses are miniscule though. I'm not sure if I was given any but asked one of the Dr's. treating me about it. I've been taking Hydromorphone twice a day for close to 2 years now. Apparently it's another drug that's in demand for the junkies but down a few steps from Fentanyl.

I've talked to guys that have worked in the oilsands and they say illegal drugs like cocain are very common up there. I was also talking to my former neighbors brother who did a lot of pipeline. He said it was common there too. He said it was scary working with guys that were stoned out of their mind handling the pipe. You sure don't want the side boom operator high on coke. It was one of the reasons he got out of pipelining. It seems when there's lots of money floating around and not much else to do, the more illegal substances are abundant. It's like pocket change for guys making 6 figures.
What's really stupid is a few years ago Suncor wanted to do drug testing to try and control the problem but the union shut them down saying it was a violation of the workers rights. It made no sense at all to me. If workers were clean they wouldn't have any issues with it. It seems like it should be a violation of the clean workers rights. Do you want to be anywhere near somebody high on coke driving a 797 or other big machine?? It's stupid, why should employee's using illegal drugs get preferential treatment? Why is the union protecting them?

Even drunk drivers who kill someone get special treatment. If a person were that drunk and chose to drive what is the difference between a person shooting someone? I've read of drunk drivers killing someone and getting a whole 3 years. It's a slap on the wrist. There was a guy almost 3 times over the limit who rear ended a car with three 19 or 20 year olds, killing all of them. They figured he was going over 100 MPH. He was yelling and swearing at people outside the court house. He got all of 8 years for killing 3 young people on their way home doing nothing wrong. He was even wanting to appeal his sentence but there was too much public outcry. In his trial they blamed it on his poor childhood and upbringing, blah, blah, blah. If he was able to get his license and a job he must have had some life skills. He should have got 8 years each for the death's at the very least. He should never get out in my opinion. I also think they need to look at the bars that are serving way too much.

crane operator said:

Didn’t read article/ paywall.

My son frames houses and a lot of the framers are weed smokers and party with harder stuff on the weekends. He's sick of working with them.

I pre-employment drug test and everyone is in a random pool. I get to send myself in for randoms.

The best I had -was a potential employee, get all the way through interview to hiring, and then asked if he "could just work a couple weeks" until he could pass the drug test. Sorry bud, but it don't work like that.

Click to expand...

LOL. Try being in a pool of one. When it was two of us, I still caught every test.