Why some men in the trades are dying of opioid overdoses
CBC
This story is part of a series called The Way Out: Addiction in Alberta. Join the discussion, or read more about the series here.
Doing drugs in a porta-potty while working on Calgary construction sites used to be common for Mike.
He's an equipment operator, although he's in a treatment facility right now. CBC News is not sharing his last name because he fears he will never work again if people know what he's gone through.
Whether it was cocaine, methamphetamine or fentanyl, Mike says he needed it to be comfortable throughout the day.
"I wouldn't be able to put in an eight-hour workday without it, just because I was so dependent on it," he said.
"With the trades, there's a lot of hard work and physical work where you're sore and tired and in pain, and you have to be able to get up and go to work the next day and do it all over again."
He's far from alone.
Three out of four people who die of overdoses in Alberta are men, according to provincial statistics. In 2017, the province reviewed all opioid-related deaths and found that of those with occupations listed, 53 per cent had employment in trades, transport or equipment operation.
A report from Health Canada looking at opioid overdoses nationally from January 2016 to June 2022 found 30 to 50 per cent of those employed worked in the trades at the time of their death.
They're people who are isolated in camps in the oilpatch up north or working on construction sites in downtown Calgary.
The big paycheques help to enable the addiction, Mike says. And for the most part, access is not a problem.
Workers describe the physical pain of working in the trades as a reason for moving toward drugs. There's also the lifestyle that comes with working at the camps.
"After a while, you end up just doing it," said Al Radtke, who is now 14 years sober.
He was once an ironworker and welder in the oilpatch and remembers frequently heading to the bar after a shift.
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