HARD WORK, HARD DRUGS

B.C. Construction Plagued By Users

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 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.

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
others 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.

"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.

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.

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.