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InvisibleBridgeburner
Not spiritual at all.
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Registered: 09/16/06
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Construction culture heavy into alcohol and drugs
    #7472953 - 10/01/07 05:40 AM (16 years, 3 months ago)

http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/news/weekender/story.html?id=57f44204-6e2f-48f4-9875-b9d4b3d4d6b8

VANCOUVER -- Albert Perrin's day used to start at 6 a.m., with the first of his three or four daily heroin fixes. By 7 a.m., he would be at his carpentry job.

The minute his lunch break came, he would have another fix. Sometimes his dealer would deliver, but on bad days, Perrin would leave work to go to his dealer and not come back.

He would do another fix after work and then maybe again, sometime before bed.

He'd tried more than once to clean himself up. In the mid-1990s, he went through a rehab program run by B.C.'s construction unions in New Westminster. A pioneer program started in 1981, there are only two like it in North America.

In fact, Perrin went through twice, the first person ever to be allowed to do that.

Working in construction, it was hard to stay off drugs.

"With the big paycheques you're getting, all the money -- I'd get drawn in again," Perrin, 43, said.

On Nov. 8, 2006, Perrin worked his last day and took his last fix before checking into Harbour Light Detox in Vancouver.

He's still there, working four shifts a week at the front desk, and studying Grade 12 math so he can get into construction at another level, like engineering. But Perrin knows there are still hundreds of other workers in the bad shape he once was, still working on construction sites all over the Lower Mainland.

At the Salvation Army's Harbour Light, detox director Nancy McConnell estimates that anywhere from 50 to 75 per cent of the men they get are from the construction industry.

Construction has always had a culture of tobacco, alcohol and drug use. That's typical for any occupation that employs mainly young, single men who are often working far from home in high-stress, boom-and-bust, low-skill jobs.

But a long list of reports and surveys from Canada and the United States indicates that the construction industry shows up regularly at or near the top of lists of occupations with the highest rates of alcohol and drug use.

At the conservative end, a 2002 Alberta report on substance use in the workplace -- the only study of its kind in Canada -- found that 10 per cent of workers said they used illegal drugs.

"While there was little variation in illicit drug use by industry and occupation, above-average rates of drug use were reported by workers in the construction industry," said the report.

On the ground, local construction workers will tell you drug use these days is more widespread, more hardcore, and involves more serious drugs than in the past.

John Brown, a heavy-equipment operator who has worked on B.C. sites everywhere from Squamish to Chilliwack, said when he started working in construction 20 years ago, most guys just smoked marijuana. Brown, now 40, did harder drugs, but he was one of the few.

"When I was doing it, no one else was. Now everybody is," he said.

Gordie Klassen, manager of the unions' rehabilitation program, said that 15 years ago, most of the men who came to the rehab centre had a drinking problem. Now, it's rare that they get anyone with only a drinking problem. For a few, it's heroin. For some, it's a marijuana-plus-drinking combination. But the majority of the approximately 150 men per year who use their service now come in saying they're addicted to crack.

"There's been a regular occurrence in recent years where we see construction workers early in the morning, in their boots and hats and belts and vests, and they're in the lanes doing rock and shooting up," said Const. Shane Aitken, who has been a beat cop in the Downtown Eastside for six years.

"There's a noticeable increase," said Aitken, who said they are spotted around 5 or 6 in the morning, before work sites kick into gear at 7 a.m. "I asked one worker and he said it's the only way they can get through the day."

The increased drug use is happening for all kinds of reasons, say workers and people connected with the industry.

The stress in construction is higher than ever, with developers desperate to get their buildings up and Olympics-driven deadlines.

"All the way down the line, it's 'Hurry, hurry hurry.' The 2010 is coming up and they want a floor a week, a floor a week, and there's this push on," said Calvin Bowe, 50, another resident at Harbour Light. He worked construction for many years while supporting a $100-a-day heroin habit.

Added to that, the current labour shortage is so extreme that even a heavy drug user won't get fired as long as he shows up on time, doesn't miss too many days, doesn't get caught using on the job, and doesn't drop anything on his co-workers.

Even if someone does get fired, he can get a job on another site, no questions asked, within days. Only the ones who spin completely out of control can't get work and end up on the streets or in detoxes.

Construction companies and temporary-work agencies routinely recruit out of the region's shelters and everyone has an apocryphal tale from this new work environment. A crane operator was using cocaine every day until, one morning, his detox sponsor found him strung out and stopped him from going up any more. Dealers hang around the sites, waiting to collect their money from guys they sold to on credit the day or the week before. People are coming to work after they've been up all night and they're accidents waiting to happen. The son of a construction-company owner was selling drugs to people on the site.

Those kinds of stories circulating in the industry, plus reports of exploding drug markets in boom towns like Alberta's Fort McMurray, have everyone connected with construction concerned.

American studies indicate construction has one of the highest injury rates of all occupations and that workers' compensation claims are five times the normal rate in the occupations where drug use is more prevalent. A Washington State study showed that substance users had an injury rate of 15 per 100, while it was only 11 per 100 for non-substance-using workers.

The B.C. construction industry made headlines earlier this year when WorkSafeBC reported that there had been a 36-per-cent increase in construction-related accidents in 2006, with 21,000 accidents reported for the year, even though the workforce had grown by only seven per cent.

There are complex legal and research issues when it comes to trying to figure out when a worker is too impaired to work, which workers really need to be tested, how you tell the difference between the effects of drug use and fatigue, what drugs need to be tested for, and what rights both workers and companies have. A major case is going to the Alberta court of appeal this fall, one being closely followed by B.C. employers, over some of those issues.


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InvisibleMrKite1
Cosmo

Registered: 03/02/04
Posts: 1,384
Loc: AK
Re: Construction culture heavy into alcohol and drugs [Re: Bridgeburner]
    #7472985 - 10/01/07 06:24 AM (16 years, 3 months ago)

I didn't know a story like this would be news to anyone. heh


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When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.


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Offlinemoon_glue
Orwell's Post9/11 Era
Male


Registered: 01/20/07
Posts: 2,264
Loc: Earth, today...
Last seen: 8 years, 10 months
Re: Construction culture heavy into alcohol and drugs [Re: MrKite1]
    #7473321 - 10/01/07 10:11 AM (16 years, 3 months ago)

haha everyone on a construction site has their handy bowl in their back pack, tool belt, or pocket. If you are working with the right group, it makes scoaring good weed at good prices a breeze.


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OfflineThePeruvianTorch
Cactidude
Registered: 09/11/05
Posts: 310
Last seen: 13 years, 8 months
Re: Construction culture heavy into alcohol and drugs [Re: Bridgeburner]
    #7473448 - 10/01/07 10:54 AM (16 years, 3 months ago)

no way construction workers doing drugs?! .. shit... hahahaa, i work construction... and ohhh shit, I do drugs!!!


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InvisibleThirdEyeOpening
Lost In My Head
Male User Gallery


Folding@home Statistics
Registered: 08/24/04
Posts: 2,287
Loc: How the fuck should i kno... Flag
Re: Construction culture heavy into alcohol and drugs [Re: Bridgeburner]
    #7473472 - 10/01/07 11:04 AM (16 years, 3 months ago)

I worked construction and related feilds for the past 5 years, my brother has for 14 years. Me and him still smoke and drink, he just stoped the blow, FINALLY. He still shoots pills now and then, but he usually takes his seboxin, and i still eat every opiate i get my hands on, which thankfully is not often.

All of his friends and mine that work all do some drug, be it pot, blow, or opiates. I knew one guy that drank all day long, wouldent eat, but would have 5-6 32oz beers. I always found it ironic, most if not all of central florida, and probably the whole state has been built by users.

If your in construction, you, or the guy next to you does some drug daily.


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Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity. Im not too sure about the former.      -Einstein

Of course the rules need to be enforced, but the goal of law and order should be to create a just society, not to enforce laws. -Unknown

“I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.”  -Stephen Roberts


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InvisibleLe_Canard
The Duk Abides


Registered: 05/16/03
Posts: 94,392
Loc: Earthfarm 1 Flag
Re: Construction culture heavy into alcohol and drugs [Re: Bridgeburner]
    #7473698 - 10/01/07 12:01 PM (16 years, 3 months ago)

Yep, same here. I've never worked construction, but everyone I've known in the trade has been into drugs of some type or another.


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