DIG TRUCKERS WHEEL IN TO METHADONE CLINIC

Big Dig workers are lining up at the crack of dawn to get heroin-weaning
methadone from a local clinic -- including some who operate heavy
equipment, the Herald has learned.

Trucks from two Big Dig contractors have been spotted at the Habit
Management detox on Topeka Street in Boston several mornings before work.
The drug problem among tradesmen is so rampant that a Teamsters drug
counselor accompanies workers to the facility, including some who work on
the troubled Big Dig.

The Herald followed one trucker who got his daily dose of methadone -- a
legally prescribed narcotic designed to reduce heroin cravings -- and then
proceeded to drive his 18-wheel rig north to an Aggregate Industries plant
in Malden. The driver, who hauls stone for the Big Dig contractor, has been
spotted getting his methadone several mornings at Habit Management,
including last week.

Other workers driving commercial plated pickup trucks routinely pull up to
the methadone clinic, including a vehicle owned by M.L. McDonald Company of
Watertown, which had a Big Dig painting contract, officials said.

The issue raises more questions about the $14.6 billion project, which is
the focus of federal and state probes into cost overruns and shoddy
workmanship that has allegedly led to leaky tunnels. Aggregate Industries
was raided by the feds earlier this year and was cited by Attorney General
Tom Reilly for allegedly supplying the project with poor quality concrete.

"We are not aware of workers with drug dependencies negatively impacting
the project in any way," said the Big Dig's Doug Hanchett.

Big Dig workers are drug tested when hired and can be re-tested after a
mishap. Hanchett said the Big Dig has "an exemplary safety record" and has
a low number of work-related injuries. He noted that federal disability
laws prohibit employers from discriminating against addicts in treatment.

Those receiving methadone in liquid or pill form are seeking to kick heroin
and may have been active heroin users recently. The dangers of heroin and
its powerful high are well known, while there is a debate about methadone's
safety and effectiveness.

Robert M. Perry, who runs the employee assistance program for the Teamsters
union, said some workers slip into addiction after getting prescribed
potent painkillers like Valium, Percocet or OxyContin for an injury.
OxyContin abuse often leads to crippling addiction and drives users to
heroin, which is cheaper and offers a similar high.

"It's in all the trades," Perry said one morning last week after
accompanying fellow Teamsters to the methadone clinic. "They try it. They
think they can do it once or twice and get high. They think they can get
off it and they can't."

While the methadone program soothes dopesick addicts, Perry said more
long-term treatment centers are the answer.

"You can get it out of your system, but then you have to get it out of your
head," he said.