Pubdate: Wed, 07 Sep 2005 Source: Boston Herald (MA) Copyright: 2005 The Boston Herald, Inc Contact: http://news.bostonherald.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/53 Author: Dave Wedge Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Test) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone) 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. - --- MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman